FROM PAGE 1

The report said that the failure to acknowledge workplace deaths and ensure timely social security for surviving family members can lead to poverty.

A widow of a Bangladeshi migrant worker told HRW, “To make ends meet, I have put my 14-year-old son to work, and the little money he earns is used for our daily expenses.”

The widow of a 46-year-old Bangladeshi construction worker in Saudi Arabia recounted that her husband died in a workplace accident when a machine was accidentally turned on while he was trying to fix it. His head was severed in the incident.

“When we received his body, I wanted to hold him one last time, but it wasn’t possible. Seeing him in that state, I lost consciousness,” said the woman to HRW.

The widow of another 43-year-old Bangladeshi concrete block cutter in Saudi Arabia said her husband, who lacked experience with the heavy machine he was operating, was killed by a blade of the machine.

The widow of a 36-year-old Bangladeshi construction worker in Saudi Arabia said her husband died after a large stack of heavy blocks collapsed on him at a worksite. A relative who witnessed the incident reported that the blocks were too heavy to move by hand, and by the time a crane was brought in, her husband had already died. His body was crushed under the weight of the blocks.

The widow of a 33-year-old Bangladeshi migrant worker who had been in Saudi Arabia for only seven months said her husband fell from the third floor of a building under demolition while breaking a wall. Although he survived the fall initially, no one helped him due to fear of legal consequences, and he later died.

HRW interviewed the family of another 48-year-old Bangladeshi construction worker in Saudi Arabia who said he died after falling from the fifth floor of a building. His safety belt came off while doing shuttering work, causing him to fall onto debris and iron pieces at an elevator landing area.