Sitaram and Binita Das have longed for their sons for years. The couple loves their five daughters, but on the deep southern plains of Nepal, they face large sums of money to pay for each marriage.
They can't afford such expenses, and they think Sitalam should join thousands of other Nepalis in search of jobs in Saudi Arabia.
The demand for cheap immigrant labor in the Gulf Kingdom has increased as it attempts to rebrand on the world stage, partly through large-scale construction projects that include futuristic cities, luxury resorts, theme parks, and large-scale construction projects hosting the 2034 Men's Football World Cup.
This rapid shift has attracted global attention and has further reviewed the treatment of migrant workers such as Das in the country. When he left Nepal for Saudi Arabia, he knew his wife was pregnant, but it wasn't that he would never see their children.
Now, I am the only one who can take care of them. What if something happens to me? I am at the mercy of God and destiny
Binita Das
In February 2024, a month before Rudke Krishna was born, Das worked on a deep trench, and according to witnesses, the ground above him collapsed and smashed him to death.
Friends and strangers gather. DAS colleagues gathered some money for families, others heard about the tragedy on social media and received compensation from an insurance plan in Nepal. Binita said, but from his company and the Saudi authorities, there is only silence. Even his excellent salary – £160 a month – is still unpaid, she said.
Under Saudi law, family members of workers who died at the job should be compensated, but Binita said everything she received from the Bay State was a bunch of documents, including death certificates, which were obviously wrong, and DAS fell into his death.
Binita lives with the couple's six children and some farm animals in one of Nepal's poorest areas, where many houses are still made of bamboo and dirt, and trolleys pulled with cattle are more common than cars. Without her husband's income, she worked hard in the fields for a long time. “Now I'm the only one who can take care of them. What if something happens to me?” she said. “I am at the mercy of God and fate.”
Versions of the Das family’s story can be heard on the southern belt of Nepal, where almost every family sends someone abroad to work. The name changed, but a pattern appeared: a colleague was told of a sudden death of a loved one, the details were often vague and contradictory, their employers had little or no contact, often engaged in long and fruitless struggles of compensation, and based on the fact that death certificates had few clues about what was actually happening.
According to rights groups Fairsquare and Human Rights Watch, the deaths of workers such as DAS have highlighted the failure of the country to protect the deaths of migrant workers, properly investigated and ensure that their families receive fair compensation.
Fairsquare found this week’s evidence “actually suggests that there is no system that ensures investigations are carried out in situations where people die in workplace accidents.”
The lack of transparency is even more pronounced in cases where these deaths are classified as “natural”, which is by far the most common cause of death certificates. Human rights organizations and pathologists believe that the term is meaningless because it fails to provide an explanation for the underlying cause of death.
“What do we know? We're here, we can't say what's going on there,” said Asa Devi Sah Teli, whose husband Kisan Teli died in Saudi Arabia after he went bankrupt after working on the construction site last year. His death certificate says he died of “natural” causes. He is 41 years old.
When deaths are classified in this way, the employer does not need to pay compensation, putting women like the ASA into a desperate financial strait. She now works hard on the occasional farm work and earns 400 rupees (£2.20) a day. “I'm sure he would still be alive if he stayed at home,” Asa said. “We're poor, but at least we're together.”
Saudi Arabia claims its work-related mortality rate is “the lowest in the world”, but the Guardian raises questions about its reliability by analyses of these claims, as well as a separate study by Fairsquare.
Data from the Saudi government pointed out that in 2019, 93 job-related deaths of all nationalities were small, but official records in Bangladesh (see by documents provided by Guardian and Saudi Arabia) seemed to indicate that 270 deaths in the same year were found in its nationals. While not all accidental deaths in Bangladesh may be related to work, the findings indicate a gap between claims from Saudi authorities and other sources.
At 24, Anjali Kumari Rai was already the mother of two boys, a cancer patient and a widow. Rai said she and her husband, Surya Nath Ray Amat, dreaming of making enough money to build a small house in southern Nepal and send their son to a decent school, but “Fate” intervened.
After being diagnosed with cancer, her husband went to Saudi Arabia and earned enough money to pay for her treatment. Nine months later, in May 2024, Amart's relatives were told that he was working and an explosion occurred in the tank that killed him, and two other workers were allegedly there.
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Rai is eligible for compensation from Saudi Arabia, as well as her husband’s outstanding salary and benefits, but seven months after his death she said she got nothing from her employer or the Saudi Arabian authorities. She said the only money she received from Saudi Arabia came from friends and colleagues who donated about £525 in the country.
Amat's mother, Neelam Devi Rai, is working hard to accept what's going on. “It's very difficult. I lost hope. How do we take care of his wife's treatment and take care of the children? It's unimaginable,” she said.
Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development has been contacted for comment.
