 |
| Picture belonging to the articel: © Narendra Shrestha/EPA - Nepalese construction worker Om Kumar Chaudhary in Kathmandu. He moved to the capital to prepare for a job in Qatar. |
More than 90% of deaths of Nepalese migrant
workers should be treated as murder, a senior government official has said.
Krishna Hari Pushkar, director-general of
the department of foreign employment in Nepal, said only a fraction of the
rising numbers of migrant deaths overseas could be classified as natural.
"These days, we have changed our perspective. Whenever we receive a report
of a death, we will not simply accept it as a natural death," he said.
"Unless the employer can prove it's a natural death, we will file a case
against them on the charge of murder."
Pushkar's comments follow an extensive
assessment of the causes of migrant deaths, during which government officials
visited major destination countries to study death records and interview
employers and staff.
"Workers, especially construction
workers, are under a lot of stress. This can lead to death from a brain
haemorrhage or cardiac arrest," Pushkar said. "The employers call
this a natural death, but when we talked to [the deceased worker's] colleagues,
they said they were forced to work beyond their capacity to meet their
employer's targets."
