Migrant workers' home nations urged to act over abuses

Rights groups urged South Asian governments on Friday to demand proper protection for their migrant workers amid outrage over the deaths of dozens of Nepalese on projects linked to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

While Nepal's government said it would not try to halt the flow of migrant workers after a newspaper investigation into the work conditions, activists said the blame should rest not only with employers in the Gulf.

Millions of people from impoverished parts of the Asian subcontinent work in Gulf states such as Qatar and Saudi Arabia, sending home remittances that are crucial to their families' welfare and to their nations' finances.

Qatar alone is home to about 300,000 Nepalese workers, most of whom come from impoverished rural areas.

The vast majority are working on construction projects and are hired by Nepal-based employment agencies that operate under license from the government and are supposed to adhere to regulations on working conditions.

Buddhi Bahadur Khadka, a spokesman for the Labor Ministry in Kathmandu, said Nepalese officials based in the embassy in Doha did vet employers to ensure they follow "standard guidelines" but acknowledged that problems exist.

"Despite our efforts, there have been irregularities. That needs to be changed. We are trying our best," he said.

Nepal recalled its ambassador to Qatar, Maya Kumari Sharma, on Thursday after she called the Gulf state an "open jail" for Nepalese workers who suffer labor abuses.

She made her remarks about six months ago in an interview but they attracted attention only this week after they were reprinted in a report by Britain's Guardian newspaper that documented the deaths of dozens of Nepalese workers in Qatar over the summer when temperatures can reach around 50 C.

It detailed how some had not been paid for months, were denied drinking water and had their passports confiscated as they toiled on a range of infrastructure projects being prepared for when Qatar hosts soccer fans from around the world in less than a decade.

Suhas Chakma, director of the Asian Centre for Human Rights, said governments on the subcontinent had too often turned a blind eye to the "horrendous" conditions that he said frequently breached international agreements.

"This issue does not concern only Nepal. There are thousands of laborers from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh who are traveling abroad for work.

"It is time the SAARC countries frame a policy for protection of their laborers from abuse and exploitation," he added, referring to the eight-nation South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, based in Kathmandu.

Nepal received 430 billion rupees ($4.34 billion) that had been sent back by its roughly 1 million migrant workers in 2012, according to Nepal's central bank. That amount accounted for 22 percent of GDP in a country where about one in three young people are out of work.

"We won't stop sending the workers just because their exploitation has been highlighted now. We can't stop it because that's the only major employment opportunity for the majority of Nepalese youths," Khadka said.