When Dreams Die Quietly
Standing somewhere in the middle of a serpentine queue outside the fingerprinting office, 22-year-old Chandu Ram, a Nepalese, eagerly awaits his turn.
The anxiousness about 'what's happening inside' clear as he tries to bend sideways to get a peek inside every time the door opens for someone to go in or come out.
Off and on Chandu looks his rather ancient-looking wristwatch, and then at the soaring sun above.
"It's very hot here," he says in broken Hindi. But the smile doesn't fade away.
Chandu, who hails from Sirubari, a small village 1700m above sea level, like thousands of other Nepalese workers that land in Qatar every month, has come here with a dream. A dream to earn "good money" and send it back home so that his family "can have more than one meal a day".
"I have four younger brothers and three sisters, who I have to marry off. We don't have much money there," Chandu, who is working as a labourer in a construction company in Salwa at a salary of QR 600 a month, says.
Agriculture is the main occupation in Nepal, but it doesn't fetch the people there even enough money to eat two proper meals a day.
"I had to get out of there. I couldn't see my family suffer like that," he says.
It's not that Chandu isn't aware of the hardship and the torture of working in barren surroundings under the hot sun he would have to go through. "But someone has to do it," he shrugs.
"It's already been one month. Like this, month after month, life will pass," he smiles, the sweat glowing from his face.
Like Chandu, several other Nepalese youngsters in that queue are well prepared for the fact that their life "abroad" will not be a bed of roses.
Since January, a whopping 52 Nepali expatriates have died in Qatar, with about 30 of them succumbing to "heart attacks", 12 committing suicide, and the rest falling victims to road accidents, according to the Royal Nepal Embassy here.
Astonishingly, "all of them were below the age of 40".
"Certainly there are problems labourers are facing. But it isn't just Nepalese labourers that are dying. Labourers from Sri Lanka or other countries are dying too. But yes, there are more Nepalese dying. Probably because of the difference in climatic conditions," Nepalese Ambassador Shyamananda Suman tells Gulf Times.
None of those who committed suicide, most of them found hanging in their company-provided accommodation, left any sort of notes which could hint at reasons as to why they took the step.
As of now, there are approximately 60,000 Nepali expatriates in Qatar, "80%" of which are labourers, whereas the rest are working at the "executive level". About 6,000 Nepalese are added into Qatar every year, says an embassy official.
Largely, the influx of workers from Nepal in to Qatar started in the early 90s when the construction boom began.
And now, with the 11-flights-a-week of Qatar Airways, which connects Doha with Kathmandu, are certainly playing a major role in attracting Nepalese workers to Qatar in search of job opportunities.
No denying, labourers from Nepal are in demand and that's why the 11-flights-a-week, all of which fly jam packed with the Nepalese workforce.
Mohamad Anwar of Coastal Trading and Engineering, a manpower company, reasons for the demand: "Indian and Pakistani work visas have been blocked. The only option is to call labourers from Nepal or Sri Lanka."
Meanwhile, Bin Arbaid Industrial Services' Prabhadharan gives a more "realistic and practical" reply.
"It's cost effective," he says. "They (Nepalese) come very cheap."
"Besides," Prabhadharan adds, "They are polite, and very obedient as compared to labourers from other countries. Construction companies prefer people from Nepal."
Apart from the bad economic situation and the lack of job opportunities in the Nepal, the country's Civil War, a conflict between Maoists rebels and the monarchial government of the country, is another major factor that has Nepalese youth running away for cover.
"We can't stay in Nepal," says Mohamad Shakeeb, 19, a construction labourer working in the Salwa Industrial Area for the past one year. "There is a civil war going on there. The Maoists come to our villages and take away all the youngsters. They brainwash them and make them into terrorists.
"Several of my friends have been taken away and are now killing their own people. I would have been taken away too," he adds.
Initiated by the Communist Party of Nepal in 1996 with an aim to establish a "People's Republic", over 11,500 people have been killed in the conflict and an estimated 100,000 to 150,000 people have been "internally displaced".
The conditions in Nepal have separated a countless number of families, including Shakeeb's.
"My father and elder brother came to Qatar long ago, when I was still very young. They sent me a visa last year. I came here leaving behind my mother and two sisters," Shakeeb, who earns QR 700 a month, says.
He has not been able to meet his father and brother though. "They work far away, in Al Khor," says Shakeeb, who had to give up his dream of finishing school and going to college long ago due to his family's "financial situation".
Shakeeb, when most of the boys his age are busy trying to decide whether to go in for medicine or arts or economics as a career option, hammers iron rods into the ground and lays brick from 10am to 6pm every single day but Fridays.
"On Fridays, I sleep all day. Sometimes I take the company bus, which takes us around Doha," he says. "I like the big malls, and the fast cars, and the blue sea..." he giggles.
But unlike Shakeeb, others don't have fathers and brothers here to sponsor them.
Sunder, 29, took a loan of 90,000 Nepalese rupees, to pay for his ticket, visa and to pay the agent back home who got him a job here.
He thought he'd pay off the loan soon with the QR 700 per month promised to him as salary and start sending money home to his wife and two young sons.
But things haven't gone exactly as he thought.
Sunder, who came here about two years ago, has been taking rounds of the Nepal Embassy "almost every day for the past five months" hoping that his ("highly posted") fellow countrymen can help him get his salary due for "eight months" so that he can buy a ticket to Nepal.
"The dreams we come here with are just false dreams. Nothing but dreams," he says, sitting in the waiting lounge of the embassy - his last hope.
"I will not be able to pay off the debt. They will take our house away. I don't know what to do," he weeps, as others waiting in the same room console him with a pat on his back.
The embassy says it gets about "15 people everyday" with problems related to "non-payment of salaries, non-stamping of residence permits, and physical and mental torture by employers".
The official sights a "recent" example of Kamal Neupaney, a 30-year-old labourer, who was badly beaten up by his employer for a "reason still unknown".
Subhodh, 27, who works as a secretary in a reputed Doha firm, understands the condition of his under-privileged countrymen.
"They (Nepalese labourers) are promised overtime salary. They think they'll eat food with what they get as overtime and send the rest of their salary back home. But leave alone overtime they don't even get their regular salaries for months. How will they repay the loan they took to come here?
"What else will they do but commit suicide?" Subhodh says.
According to the Qatar Labour Law, all travel expenses for foreign recruits must be borne by the employer. "But that is obviously not happening, as most of these workers have had to pay for their tickets and other expenses to come to Qatar," says the embassy official.
"The issue lies between the Nepalese manpower companies and the Qatar manpower companies. They have to settle it. We can't do anything because the payments workers make are anyway not on paper," says Ambassador Suman.
It's been "four years" since Mohamad Salim, 37, a cook in a down-market restaurant, has gone back home to his village Sirajuri. "The owner hasn't paid me for six months. He doesn't even give me a ticket back home," he says.
Like many others', the embassy, has become Salim's last resort for hope. "I don't want to work here anymore. I'd rather die of hunger in my village. At least I'll be close to my family," he says.
According to figures from Nepal, there have been over 100 deaths of Nepalese workers abroad with "over 50% taking place in the Gulf region".
Moreover, due to reports of "physical and sexual abuse" the foreign employment department of Nepal has "banned sending women" to work in the Gulf countries.
Tika Ram, 30, who has been in Qatar for 12 years, says he misses home. "Money is not as good here as we think while coming here. But it's certainly more than what we would get in Nepal."
Staying in a camp in the dusty Salwa Industrial Area, Ram shares a room with ten other workers, who get bunk beds to sleep on.
"One toilet for ten people," he adds.
"How can anyone be happy staying away from their families? But we have no choice. Either we can die of hunger or become terrorists and start killing innocent people. We don't want either of that," ram says.
These innocent and hapless humans are jumping out of the frying pan and falling into the fire. And the worst part is, they don't have a choice.
They just have to take the leap.
By now, Chandu is busy washing the black stain off his palms. His fingerprinting is done.
He gets in the company van and waves goodbye. The smile on his face has still not faded.
(Names of all labourers have been changed to protect their identity)
The anxiousness about 'what's happening inside' clear as he tries to bend sideways to get a peek inside every time the door opens for someone to go in or come out.
Off and on Chandu looks his rather ancient-looking wristwatch, and then at the soaring sun above.
"It's very hot here," he says in broken Hindi. But the smile doesn't fade away.
Chandu, who hails from Sirubari, a small village 1700m above sea level, like thousands of other Nepalese workers that land in Qatar every month, has come here with a dream. A dream to earn "good money" and send it back home so that his family "can have more than one meal a day".
"I have four younger brothers and three sisters, who I have to marry off. We don't have much money there," Chandu, who is working as a labourer in a construction company in Salwa at a salary of QR 600 a month, says.
Agriculture is the main occupation in Nepal, but it doesn't fetch the people there even enough money to eat two proper meals a day.
"I had to get out of there. I couldn't see my family suffer like that," he says.
It's not that Chandu isn't aware of the hardship and the torture of working in barren surroundings under the hot sun he would have to go through. "But someone has to do it," he shrugs.
"It's already been one month. Like this, month after month, life will pass," he smiles, the sweat glowing from his face.
Like Chandu, several other Nepalese youngsters in that queue are well prepared for the fact that their life "abroad" will not be a bed of roses.
Since January, a whopping 52 Nepali expatriates have died in Qatar, with about 30 of them succumbing to "heart attacks", 12 committing suicide, and the rest falling victims to road accidents, according to the Royal Nepal Embassy here.
Astonishingly, "all of them were below the age of 40".
"Certainly there are problems labourers are facing. But it isn't just Nepalese labourers that are dying. Labourers from Sri Lanka or other countries are dying too. But yes, there are more Nepalese dying. Probably because of the difference in climatic conditions," Nepalese Ambassador Shyamananda Suman tells Gulf Times.
None of those who committed suicide, most of them found hanging in their company-provided accommodation, left any sort of notes which could hint at reasons as to why they took the step.
As of now, there are approximately 60,000 Nepali expatriates in Qatar, "80%" of which are labourers, whereas the rest are working at the "executive level". About 6,000 Nepalese are added into Qatar every year, says an embassy official.
Largely, the influx of workers from Nepal in to Qatar started in the early 90s when the construction boom began.
And now, with the 11-flights-a-week of Qatar Airways, which connects Doha with Kathmandu, are certainly playing a major role in attracting Nepalese workers to Qatar in search of job opportunities.
No denying, labourers from Nepal are in demand and that's why the 11-flights-a-week, all of which fly jam packed with the Nepalese workforce.
Mohamad Anwar of Coastal Trading and Engineering, a manpower company, reasons for the demand: "Indian and Pakistani work visas have been blocked. The only option is to call labourers from Nepal or Sri Lanka."
Meanwhile, Bin Arbaid Industrial Services' Prabhadharan gives a more "realistic and practical" reply.
"It's cost effective," he says. "They (Nepalese) come very cheap."
"Besides," Prabhadharan adds, "They are polite, and very obedient as compared to labourers from other countries. Construction companies prefer people from Nepal."
Apart from the bad economic situation and the lack of job opportunities in the Nepal, the country's Civil War, a conflict between Maoists rebels and the monarchial government of the country, is another major factor that has Nepalese youth running away for cover.
"We can't stay in Nepal," says Mohamad Shakeeb, 19, a construction labourer working in the Salwa Industrial Area for the past one year. "There is a civil war going on there. The Maoists come to our villages and take away all the youngsters. They brainwash them and make them into terrorists.
"Several of my friends have been taken away and are now killing their own people. I would have been taken away too," he adds.
Initiated by the Communist Party of Nepal in 1996 with an aim to establish a "People's Republic", over 11,500 people have been killed in the conflict and an estimated 100,000 to 150,000 people have been "internally displaced".
The conditions in Nepal have separated a countless number of families, including Shakeeb's.
"My father and elder brother came to Qatar long ago, when I was still very young. They sent me a visa last year. I came here leaving behind my mother and two sisters," Shakeeb, who earns QR 700 a month, says.
He has not been able to meet his father and brother though. "They work far away, in Al Khor," says Shakeeb, who had to give up his dream of finishing school and going to college long ago due to his family's "financial situation".
Shakeeb, when most of the boys his age are busy trying to decide whether to go in for medicine or arts or economics as a career option, hammers iron rods into the ground and lays brick from 10am to 6pm every single day but Fridays.
"On Fridays, I sleep all day. Sometimes I take the company bus, which takes us around Doha," he says. "I like the big malls, and the fast cars, and the blue sea..." he giggles.
But unlike Shakeeb, others don't have fathers and brothers here to sponsor them.
Sunder, 29, took a loan of 90,000 Nepalese rupees, to pay for his ticket, visa and to pay the agent back home who got him a job here.
He thought he'd pay off the loan soon with the QR 700 per month promised to him as salary and start sending money home to his wife and two young sons.
But things haven't gone exactly as he thought.
Sunder, who came here about two years ago, has been taking rounds of the Nepal Embassy "almost every day for the past five months" hoping that his ("highly posted") fellow countrymen can help him get his salary due for "eight months" so that he can buy a ticket to Nepal.
"The dreams we come here with are just false dreams. Nothing but dreams," he says, sitting in the waiting lounge of the embassy - his last hope.
"I will not be able to pay off the debt. They will take our house away. I don't know what to do," he weeps, as others waiting in the same room console him with a pat on his back.
The embassy says it gets about "15 people everyday" with problems related to "non-payment of salaries, non-stamping of residence permits, and physical and mental torture by employers".
The official sights a "recent" example of Kamal Neupaney, a 30-year-old labourer, who was badly beaten up by his employer for a "reason still unknown".
Subhodh, 27, who works as a secretary in a reputed Doha firm, understands the condition of his under-privileged countrymen.
"They (Nepalese labourers) are promised overtime salary. They think they'll eat food with what they get as overtime and send the rest of their salary back home. But leave alone overtime they don't even get their regular salaries for months. How will they repay the loan they took to come here?
"What else will they do but commit suicide?" Subhodh says.
According to the Qatar Labour Law, all travel expenses for foreign recruits must be borne by the employer. "But that is obviously not happening, as most of these workers have had to pay for their tickets and other expenses to come to Qatar," says the embassy official.
"The issue lies between the Nepalese manpower companies and the Qatar manpower companies. They have to settle it. We can't do anything because the payments workers make are anyway not on paper," says Ambassador Suman.
It's been "four years" since Mohamad Salim, 37, a cook in a down-market restaurant, has gone back home to his village Sirajuri. "The owner hasn't paid me for six months. He doesn't even give me a ticket back home," he says.
Like many others', the embassy, has become Salim's last resort for hope. "I don't want to work here anymore. I'd rather die of hunger in my village. At least I'll be close to my family," he says.
According to figures from Nepal, there have been over 100 deaths of Nepalese workers abroad with "over 50% taking place in the Gulf region".
Moreover, due to reports of "physical and sexual abuse" the foreign employment department of Nepal has "banned sending women" to work in the Gulf countries.
Tika Ram, 30, who has been in Qatar for 12 years, says he misses home. "Money is not as good here as we think while coming here. But it's certainly more than what we would get in Nepal."
Staying in a camp in the dusty Salwa Industrial Area, Ram shares a room with ten other workers, who get bunk beds to sleep on.
"One toilet for ten people," he adds.
"How can anyone be happy staying away from their families? But we have no choice. Either we can die of hunger or become terrorists and start killing innocent people. We don't want either of that," ram says.
These innocent and hapless humans are jumping out of the frying pan and falling into the fire. And the worst part is, they don't have a choice.
They just have to take the leap.
By now, Chandu is busy washing the black stain off his palms. His fingerprinting is done.
He gets in the company van and waves goodbye. The smile on his face has still not faded.
(Names of all labourers have been changed to protect their identity)
posted by Once the Conman at 11:14 AM
2 Comments:
Very well written.
Poignant...
"...from the frying pan into the fire", is quite well put.
Hi friends !!
Its reality which u have writtnen.
Keep on writing !!
Yogendra
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