Nepal: Accounting for nearly 12% of deaths, Govt. data reveals alarming suicide rates among migrant workers traveling abroad for work
Resumen
Fecha comunicada: 6 Abr 2023
Ubicación: Kuwait
Otro
Not Reported ( Sector no comunicado/aplicable ) - EmployerAfectado
Total de personas afectadas: Número desconocido
Trabajadores migrantes e inmigrantes: ( Número desconocido - Nepal - Sector desconocido , Gender not reported )Temas
Dismissal , Wage Theft , Tasas de contratación , Contract Substitution , Muertes , Libertad de asociación , Withholding Passports , Access to Non-Judicial RemedyRespuesta
Response sought: No
Medidas adoptadas: Workers organised a protest and the company took the worker's ID in retaliation, preventing him from working. He was then fired after being accused of drinking alcohol, a claim his colleague has denied. After he died by suicide, his family was shown evidence of payment for outstanding due to the Nepal Embassy in Kuwait the family say they had not received anything and are saddled with debt.
Tipo de fuente: News outlet
"Families mourn ‘devastating’ suicide rates among Nepal’s migrant workers", 6 April 2023
Every year about 1,000 migrant workers from Nepal die abroad, most of them in the Gulf and Malaysia. While the deaths of migrant workers in workplace accidents and from heart failure have been well documented, suicides have received far less attention. And yet, among Nepalis working abroad, almost 12% of deaths are recorded as suicide.
Long periods of separation from families, debt, abusive working conditions, unsanitary accommodation, loneliness and a lack of social support services are all likely to be factors which leave workers vulnerable to severe mental health problems and thoughts of suicide, say experts.
[...]
Details of the circumstances of a death were often passed down through networks of co-workers and relatives – employers rarely contacted next of kin – leaving families confused about what happened, and in some cases, unsure whether their loved one had taken their own life or died by other means.