Reasons behind the death of so many migrants must be unearthed
19 December 2022
Out
of over 10 million Bangladeshi migrants, a large portion is in the gulf
countries, sending remittance back home every year. We not only receive
remittance every month, but we also regularly receive the corpses of
the remitters. On average 8-10 dead bodies arrive every day. The sudden
demise of the hard-working remitters has not poked any investigation,
nor table any bill or discussion and policy support to limit death by
ensuring the wellbeing of unsung heroes.
A total of 45,301 corpses
arrived in Bangladesh between 2008 and June this year. At least 27,231
bodies arrived from the six Gulf countries and of those, 12,930 corpses
came from Saudi Arabia alone. The death of migrant workers in Qatar, the
host country of the FIFA World Cup, has triggered widespread criticism
across the globe. But the deaths in other gulf countries are not often
discussed. Documents that come along the corpse's show that most
migrants die of stroke and a large portion of the victims are young or
middle-aged. The causes of death also include heart disease, accidents
at the workplace, road crashes, suicides, and murders.
However, no
investigation has been done into the cause of deaths of young or
middle-aged workers. Unskilled or low-skilled workers are often involved
in risky, difficult, and laborious jobs in the scorching heat. Apart
from the unforgiving heat, work hours reaching 12 to 18 hours, poor
living conditions, separation from families, and mental stress cause
strokes and heart attacks, they added.
Nothing is more important than
human life. There should be investigations into the cause of deaths of
young and middle-aged migrants. It is a legal obligation for a country
to conduct autopsies of all unnatural deaths. The government can engage
the ILO and World Health Organization to protect workers in those
countries. Some families slide into poverty after the death of their
breadwinners. We need to find out the reasons for so many migrants'
deaths.
