[ppradhan]

I am from Nepal. This happens because of poverty and people need to make a living. Awareness is high among migrant workers about the conditions - given hundreds of thousands travel each year and news travels back. But hope of 200-500 USD per month makes people take risks and the exodus continues.

Once there, dodgy contractors and employment agents take advantage when they can. The exit visa system really doesn't help either. Neither do unstable government, weak economy and low employment back home.

It is an actual fact that in desperation, the poor migrant workers are made to work long hours in extreme heat (direct sunlight). At nighttime, close to the desert where many of these fetid labour quarters are get suddenly cold. Extreme variations in temperature and strenuous manual work is said to have contributed to all these heart attack deaths in young people - as young as 20. I'm not sure exactly because I'm not a medical professional - but the conditions are definitely not conducive to human survival.

The way international community has taken notice with this article does help. Business communities and political interests might do their best to keep the blatant human/labour rights violation under wraps but spreading the news will make their task harder. People from countries with vested economic stakes in these gulf countries etc could do well to pressurise their governments to demand accountability. Work is what the workers want - but in humane conditions. Death should not be an acceptable condition of employment.