HYDERABAD: Dream jobs in the Gulf countries are turning into nightmares for thousands of Indian expatriates. In an alarming scenario, two Indians commit suicide every week on an average in the gulf region. Moreover, several others are dying at a young age due to heart attacks or other ailments. With a chunk of these migrants hailing from south India, especially Kerala and Andhra Pradesh, experts say it is high time the government intervenes and determines the cause of these telling statistics.
Activists associated with the Hyderabad-based NGO, Migrants Rights Council (MRC), revealed that 400 bodies arrived at the Hyderabad airport last year from the Gulf Cooperation Council member countries - UAE, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar. The major cause of death was reported to be suicide. Several others had died due to heart attack, respiratory distress and road or work site accidents.
"At the time of leaving India, the workers are healthy, but surprisingly they are dying at an early age there. We are baffled as to what is leading to heart attacks and forcing them to commit suicides," said M Bheem Reddy of MRC.
According to activists, there is a lot of psychological pressure on these expatriates, most of who happen to be unskilled workers. Distance from home, paltry earnings, difficult work conditions and ignorance of the local language could be some of reasons behind early deaths, say activists. "On an average, they are paid a meagre 600 dirhams a month, which equals to a little over Rs 10,000. It is very difficult to sustain on this in UAE," said M A R Fareed, a senior journalist who worked in UAE for seven years. Several construction workers also end up as casualties on work sites.
Despite the fact that an estimated 2.8 million Indians, including 6 lakh from AP, are in Saudi Arabia and nearly a million in UAE, not much efforts are being taken to help them. Activists have been demanding that the government must probe every death to ascertain the cause and take appropriate preventive measures, but so far, they say, their efforts are in vain.
In most casualties, relatives or friends collect money and send back the bodies to India after completing the due procedure with the help of the Indian consulate. But in the case of illegal workers, even that proves to be difficult and most bodies lie unclaimed in the foreign land.
The most recent case that came into the notice of MRC was that of 31-year-old Kummari Lingam, a construction worker who died in Bahrain. The body of the Karimnagar native arrived in Hyderabad on November 1. "The AP NRI Cell sponsored an ambulance to transport Lingam's body to his village as the family could not afford the cost," said Bheem Reddy.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/Gulf-jobs-prove-death-for-migrants/articleshow/27390860.cms
Activists associated with the Hyderabad-based NGO, Migrants Rights Council (MRC), revealed that 400 bodies arrived at the Hyderabad airport last year from the Gulf Cooperation Council member countries - UAE, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar. The major cause of death was reported to be suicide. Several others had died due to heart attack, respiratory distress and road or work site accidents.
"At the time of leaving India, the workers are healthy, but surprisingly they are dying at an early age there. We are baffled as to what is leading to heart attacks and forcing them to commit suicides," said M Bheem Reddy of MRC.
According to activists, there is a lot of psychological pressure on these expatriates, most of who happen to be unskilled workers. Distance from home, paltry earnings, difficult work conditions and ignorance of the local language could be some of reasons behind early deaths, say activists. "On an average, they are paid a meagre 600 dirhams a month, which equals to a little over Rs 10,000. It is very difficult to sustain on this in UAE," said M A R Fareed, a senior journalist who worked in UAE for seven years. Several construction workers also end up as casualties on work sites.
Despite the fact that an estimated 2.8 million Indians, including 6 lakh from AP, are in Saudi Arabia and nearly a million in UAE, not much efforts are being taken to help them. Activists have been demanding that the government must probe every death to ascertain the cause and take appropriate preventive measures, but so far, they say, their efforts are in vain.
In most casualties, relatives or friends collect money and send back the bodies to India after completing the due procedure with the help of the Indian consulate. But in the case of illegal workers, even that proves to be difficult and most bodies lie unclaimed in the foreign land.
The most recent case that came into the notice of MRC was that of 31-year-old Kummari Lingam, a construction worker who died in Bahrain. The body of the Karimnagar native arrived in Hyderabad on November 1. "The AP NRI Cell sponsored an ambulance to transport Lingam's body to his village as the family could not afford the cost," said Bheem Reddy.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/Gulf-jobs-prove-death-for-migrants/articleshow/27390860.cms
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