STAFF CORRESPONDENT

A Human Rights Watch investigation found that migrant workers from Bangladesh, India and Nepal have died in gruesome yet avoidable workplace-related accidents in Saudi Arabia.

Many migrant deaths in the Gulf country are erroneously classified as “natural” and are neither investigated nor compensated, said the report.

It found that employers violated or sought to evade their obligation under Saudi law that requires employers to bear the costs of repatriation of the remains.

HRW found that the “No Objection Certificate” given to a Bangladeshi worker who died of “electrocution” marked the possibility of compensation as “no”, with the cause of death as “not available”.

The son of the Bangladeshi man who died of electric shock told HRW that his father’s employer said that they will receive compensation if they agree on a burial on Saudi soil.

“The family rejected this and had to pay more than Tk 5 lakh to repatriate the body, which they financed through loans. The family received Tk 3.35 lakh in compensation from the Bangladeshi government,” the report said.

The family is now in debt, it said.

The family members of nine deceased Bangladeshi workers told HRW that the employers offered lump sum payments or coverage of monthly expenses provided that the dead are buried in Saudi Arabia.

“Despite their dire economic conditions, eight families said they had refused these offers while six paid the repatriation costs themselves,” said the report.

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