More than 4000 workers will die in Qatar before the start of the World Cup in 2022 says ITUC. And many of them will be Indians. 1.) most recently the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) which calls Qatar a country without conscience has made a startling estimate saying that based merely on tragic statistics collected by two embassies - Nepal and India - which account for 50% of the total migrant workforce 4000 more workers will die in Qatar before the start of the World Cup in 2022. Since 2011 nearly 700 Indian workers have lost their lives - an average of 20 a month with numbers peaking during the hot summer months. A spokesperson from the Indian embassy in Doha was quoted by the BBC as saying that the overwhelming number of deaths were due to natural causes. There are about 500,000 Indians living in the emirate, twice the number of Qatari nationals. ITUC report is littered with horrifying case studies of exploited migrants whove faced all forms of harassment right from restricted freedom of movement through a draconian sponsorship law Kafala, discrimination on wages, enforcement of fraudulent contracts, confiscation of passports and appalling living, health and safety conditions all de facto sanctioned by an unfair legal system. ITUC stresses. It says quoting diplomatic sources that the Qatari government is harassing embassy officials to keep quiet about these deaths in order to keep the flow of labour coming. It is unlikely that the Indian government is unaware of these lurid details. The casualty figures have after all been compiled from embassy records itself. . These workers are a great source of remittances which the Indian economy has been hungry for recently. Moreover as the Asian Human Rights Commission observed, it is naive to expect a nation that has rarely shown much concern for its citizenry living inside the country to be bothered about those stuck in foreign shores. Nepal took Qatar to a task for the 385 body bags it had received in the same period. No one in the Indian government seemed too bothered, even after that. The Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs lists a catalog of Billateral Labour Agreements it has entered into with countries in the Gulf including Qatar to protect Indian workers. They seem to do little good. Indians are the largest international community in Qatar, and it is by this virtue of sheer size that the government has the chance to effectively bargain for better working conditions. Without a voice of support from the corridors of power though, FIFAs biggest spectacle in Qatar could just prove to be fatal for scores of Indian citizens.
Posted on: Tue, 01 Apr 2014 13:02:30 +0000