Protect migrant construction workers

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has asked Qatar to protect the migrant construction workers who are at risk from working in the country's intense heat and humidity.

It has also asked the Qatari authorities to investigate the causes of migrant worker deaths, regularly make public data on such deaths, and use the information to devise appropriate public health policies in the Gulf country, home to some 4 lakh Bangladeshi workers.

In 2013, Qatari health authorities reported 520 such deaths of workers from Bangladesh, India, and Nepal in 2012. Of them, 385, or 74 percent, died from unexplained causes, the New York-based global rights watchdog said in a statement yesterday.

HRW said the officials concerned have not responded to requests for information about the overall number and causes of deaths of migrant workers since 2012.

Current heat protection regulations for the great majority of workers in Qatar only prohibit outdoor work from 11:30am to 3:00pm during June 15 to August 31, it said.

However, climate data show weather conditions in Qatar outside those hours and dates frequently reach levels that can result in potentially fatal heat-related illnesses in the absence of appropriate rest.

“Enforcing appropriate restrictions on outdoor work and regularly investigating and publicizing information about worker deaths is essential to protect the health and lives of construction workers in Qatar,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at HRW.

“Limiting work hours to safe temperatures -– not set by a clock or calendar -– is well within the capacity of the Qatari government and will help protect hundreds of thousands of workers,” she said.

Qatar has a migrant labour force of nearly 2 million, who comprise approximately 95 percent of its total labour force. Approximately 40 percent, or 800,000, of these workers are employed in the construction sector.