Bahrain dictatorship covers up Indian worker’s death

This video is called Protect the human rights of migrant workers in the Middle East.

Ensure action to airlift NRI’s body: Commission

TNN | Aug 31, 2013, 04.45 AM IST

CHANDIGARH: Punjab state commission for NRIs on Friday asked the Union ministry of overseas Indian affairs to take proper action to airlift a Punjabi NRI’s body from Bahrain where he was killed on August 21.

Ludhiana resident Sarabjit Singh, 23, was set afire by some unknown persons on August 21 and died at a hospital in Manama. Sarabjit’s father Harcharanjit Singh informed the commission that he was employed with a company in Bahrain. “The body has not been allowed to be airlifted since Bahrain authorities are pressurizing Sarabjit’s family to give an undertaking that no case would be filed against anyone,” said the commission’s note.

The commission has ordered the deputy commissioner and commissioner of police, Ludhiana, to pursue and coordinate between the aggrieved family and ministry of overseas Indian affairs. According to the commission, a central government scheme, Indian Community Welfare Fund (ICWF), has the objective to incur expenditure for airlifting mortal remains of Indians to the country in such cases where the families are unable to meet the cost.

From the Migrant Rights site:

Migrant Rights encourages writers, journalists, and artists to responsibly report and discuss Gulf migration issues. In particular, media reports tends to mock abuses against migrants and to reproduce a common discourse that puts the blame on migrants.

In a story published on August 19, Arabian Business blames migrants for ‘lowering’ Qatar’s international image. The first line of the story reads: “Uneducated migrant workers are downgrading Qatar’s international image by impacting its score in the United Nations’ human development index.” The article does not specify Qatar’s dependency on its migrant workforce for infrastructure and development, nor does it mention that the poor conditions migrants face account for a much worse image of the state.