Qatar, one of the richest countries in the world, has failed to investigate the deaths of thousands of migrant workers over the past decade, a report by Amnesty International (AI) titled “In the Prime of Their Lives” has revealed. The report, released on August 26, found that Qatar has been routinely issuing death certificates for migrant workers, attributing their deaths to natural causes or vaguely defined cardiac failure without conducting adequate investigations.
As the rate of unexplained migrant worker deaths in Qatar is believed to be close to 70%, AI consulted leading medical experts and reviewed government data related to thousands of deaths. It also analyzed 18 death certificates and interviewed the families of six men, all of whom were aged between 30 and 40 when they died.
As many as 15 of these certificates provided no information about the underlying causes but instead used terms such as acute heart failure or natural causes. None of the six men whose deaths were investigated had any known underlying health conditions and all had passed mandatory medical tests before traveling to Qatar. No families have received any compensation and nor have they been offered any form of post-mortem examination to identify the underlying cause of death of their loved ones.
Against this background, Amnesty International has not ruled out that unsafe working conditions may be the main cause of death rather than reasons of ill health.
“Although Qatar recently introduced some new protections for workers, major risks remain and authorities have done little to investigate the scale of heat-related deaths, despite evidence of links between premature deaths and unsafe working conditions,” the AI statement reads.
Underlining that the Qatari authorities are denying bereaved families the right to remedy and leaving them with painful unanswered questions, Steve Cockburn, AI’s Head of Economic and Social Justice, said:
“When young and healthy men die suddenly after working long hours in extreme heat, it raises serious questions about the safety of working conditions in Qatar. In failing to investigate the underlying causes of migrant workers’ deaths, the Qatari authorities are ignoring warning signs which could if addressed, save lives. This is a violation of the right to life.”
If workers have been exposed to dangerous conditions such as extreme heat and no other cause of death can be established, Qatar must provide families with adequate compensation and take immediate action to strengthen protection for other workers, he added.
Cockburn pointed out that the failure to investigate, remedy, and prevent the deaths of migrant workers is a breach of Qatar’s obligation to uphold and protect the right to life. He urged the Qatari authorities to fully investigate the deaths of all migrant workers.
While the new legislations in Qatar provide some protection for migrant workers, they do not include mandatory rest periods proportionate to the climate conditions and the nature of the work undertaken. Due to the weak enforcement of these laws, many migrant workers remain at the mercy of dishonest employers who continue to abuse their workforce.
