Immigration
In Six Years, 10 Indian Workers Died Every Day in the Gulf
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Over the last six years, nearly 10 Indian workers died in the Gulf countries every day translating to 117 deaths for every billion dollar remitted from there to India
Over the last six years, nearly 10 Indian workers died in the Gulf countries every day translating to 117 deaths for every billion dollar remitted from there to India, according to an analysis of RTO responses by a voluntary group.
Venkatesh Nayak of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative approached the external affairs ministry via Right to Information (RTI) to get data about the death of Indian workers in Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates from January 1, 2012, to about mid-2018, PTI reported.
While Indian missions in Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia provided the data, the Embassy in the UAE refused to give information and referred Nayak to data on their website which was from 2014 onwards, the news agency reported.
To get more information, Nayak used data provided during questions and answers in both houses of the Indian parliament.
“Available data indicates at least 24,570 Indian workers died in the six Gulf countries between 2012 and mid-2018. This number could increase if the complete figures for Kuwait and the UAE are made available publicly. This amounts to more than 10 deaths per day during this period,” PTI quoted him as telling.
Nayak told the news agency that Indians working in the Middle Eastern countries accounted for more than half of the remittance that India received from across the world between 2012 and 2017.
“While India received a total of $410.33 billion in remittances from the world, remittances from the Gulf countries accounted for $209.07 billion,” he told the news agency.
According to his analysis, there were more than 187 deaths for every billion dollars remitted from Oman during 2012-17 while in the same period, there were more than 183 deaths for every billion dollars received from Bahrain and 162 deaths in Saudi Arabia.
The figure for Qatar was 74 deaths for every billion dollars received. The lowest death figure for every billion dollars received was 71 from the UAE, he said.