War puts foreign workers in Gulf at greater risk

Few migrants have access to bomb shelters and many are stranded by the conflict

Hanoi (Vietnam) : He had met his 6-year-old son only once. A few days together in a life otherwise spent apart.

For 15 years, Mohammad Abdullah Al Mamun worked in Saudi Arabia, sending money home to his family in one of the poorest areas of Bangladesh. This year, he had planned to return, build a larger house with his savings and spend time with the child he barely knew.

Then, on March 8, a missile struck his workers’ camp. He suffered severe burns and later died. He was among more than two dozen foreign workers killed across the Mideast after the United States and Israel went to war with Iran in February.

Tens of millions of foreign workers have helped build the Gulf Arab states’ modern, oil-fueled economies — with many not fully sharing in their prosperity. Now they face an even sharper dilemma: Keep working in the Mideast, where wages are far higher, hoping that a shaky ceasefire endures; or return to already poor countries where prices have soared because of the conflict.

Mamun’s choice was made for him. He arrived home in a coffin earlier this month.

“We don’t know what we will do next,” said his widow, Sadia Islam Sarmin.

Migrant workers make up a majority of the population in many Gulf Arab states. Westerners, Arabs and Indians dominate business and finance, while labourers from poor countries in Asia and Africa toil for long hours in scorching temperatures at oil facilities and construction sites — often with few protections.

The Coalition for Labour Justice for Migrants in the Gulf, an advocacy group, says few had access to bomb shelters and many were stranded by the conflict. It says attacks killed at least 24 foreign workers in the Gulf and four in Israel as Iran and allied armed groups launched waves of missile and drones strikes. Their count includes eight mariners killed at sea.

“It’s a very precarious situation for migrant workers,” said Udaya Wagle, who studies labour and migration at the Northern Arizona University.

A ceasefire was announced in early April, but negotiations to end the war have repeatedly stalled. Iran has effectively blocked the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for global oil and gas, and says it will only reopen it if the war ends and the US lifts its blockade.

The resulting spike in the price of gas, fertiliser and other goods has hit Asian countries particularly hard.

Remittances from the Gulf make up about 1 per cent of the gross domestic product of India, 3 per cent to 5 per cent of the GDP in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka; and nearly 10 per cent in Nepal. Now they are more vital than ever, as household incomes are strained and governments seek foreign currency to buy oil and gas.

The Gulf economies also face a bleak outlook, with exports bottled up and key energy facilities in need of repair after missile strikes. The fighting could resume, as Iran rejects US President Donald Trump’s demands.

Mamun’s family awoke on March 9 to phone calls saying the 35-year-old had been hurt. Video footage shot by another worker showed him sitting in the open, badly burned and bleeding, crying out for help.

“He never imagined he would be hurt. That a missile would fall on him,” said Maruf Hasain, his younger brother.

Workers like Mamun are the most vulnerable since they do the “most dirty, dangerous and difficult” jobs, said Shariful Islam Hasan of the Bangladeshi development organisation BRAC.

In Qatar, a 27-year-old Bangladeshi factory worker laboured through 12-hour shifts as missiles flew overhead. Shrapnel from one strike fell near his living quarters. When alarms sounded, he said, workers went to a designated room.

He earns less than $400 monthly and sends two-thirds home. “We have no choice but to keep working,” he said on condition of anonymity for fear of angering the authorities.

Qatar enacted several reforms in the run-up to hosting the 2022 World Cup, including the partial dismantling of a system that tied workers to their employers. But activists say abuses are still widespread and that workers have few avenues to pursue justice.