Dubai: More than 700 Indian workers have died in Qatar in the last three years, data released by the Indian embassy in the Gulf nation revealed.
The embassy registered 232 deaths in 2013, 237 in 2012 and 239 in 2011.
The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), which works in the field of labour welfare, has also highlighted the grim conditions of foreign workers in the country where the 2022 FIFA World Cup will be held.
Sharan Burrow, general secretary of ITUC, speaking at a European Parliament hearing said: “Qatar is a slave state for 1.4 million migrant workers. It doesn't have to be that way. Qatar chooses to build its modern nation with the labour of migrant workers and deliberately chooses to maintain a system that treats these workers as less than human.”
Trade unions, human rights groups and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) also gave evidence to European Parliament members about the need for workers in Qatar to have a proper workplace representation and to have a voice without fear of retaliation.
There are over 600,000 expatriate Indians in Qatar, many of them blue collar workers.
