Gulf: Migrant workers' exposure to extreme heat leads to chronic health problems, finds Vital Signs; incl. non-responses
Workers described the heat as a kind of torment. In interviews with me, workers ranked extreme temperatures as the most difficult and harmful pressure they faced by far. “I had never imagined a climate like this,” said one worker from Nepal. “Until you feel it, you cannot believe it.” “The heat is like a wall,” said another from Kenya. “It melts the air, and you feel you are drowning. You cannot breathe,” added his compatriot. “It is like the sky is pressing down on your body".Professor Iskander, the James Weldon Johnson Professor of Urban Planning and Public Service at New York University, researching construction sites in Qatar
In July 2023, the Vital Signs Partnership released its third report exploring the deeply harmful impact of high temperatures on migrant workers in the Gulf. It finds excessive exposure to heat leads to both short- and long- term health problems. Health issues due to heat begin for acclimatised workers doing moderately strenuous work when the Wet Bulb Globe Temperature reaches 28°C; the risk of heat-related injury is reached at even lower temperatures for non-acclimatised workers. The Gulf routinely exceeds these temperatures, and the report emphasizes how the climate crisis will significantly increase the number of extremely hot days.
The report explores how exposure to heat causes and/or exacerbates a number of harmful health conditions, including respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and kidney disease. In the short-term, excessive heat can reduced the body’s ability to regulate its temperature, causing heat cramps, exhaustion, and stokes. The report also emphasises the cognitive impact of heat which can effect judgement, leading to increased occupational health and safety risks, particularly in sectors such as construction where such risks are already high.
Workers go to the Gulf to earn money, but return with kidney disease.Dr. Rishi Kumar Kafle, Executive Director and Chief Nephrologist at Nepal’s National Kidney Center.
The report particularly emphasises the relationship between exposure to heat and kidney disease; sharing testimony from workers employed in the Gulf whose experiences of extreme heat (combined with other labour rights violations such as a lack of access to water and sufficient breaks) led to the development of chronic kidney disease. Vital Signs highlight how a lack of protective equipment exacerbates the risk of heat and argues that the summer working hours bans imposed by each country are arbitrary, non-scientific, and inconsistently applied.
Missing and incomplete data is a significant challenge and there is a lack of data on mortality due to heat stress and broader issues of unexplained migrant worker deaths in the region due to failures in the investigation and certification of migrant mortality. The absence of data in the Gulf contrasts with widespread studies finding a causal link between high temperatures and increased death rates in other countries.
The report makes a number of recommendations for Gulf states. It suggests GCC countries adopt a risk-based (rather than a calendar-based) approach to limit workers’ exposure to heat; and should ensure workers have the appropriate breaks along with access to water, chilled foot and air-conditioned accommodation. The report makes a number of other recommendations relating to improved access to healthcare and the investigation and certification of migrant deaths.
The Resource Centre reached out to two recruitment agencies - Asia Link Services and Good Luck Manpower - and a security company - Federal Security Services - named in case studies published in the report, inviting them to respond to the allegations of workers placed in dangerous working conditions. No company responded.
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