Up to 10,000 Asian migrant workers die in the Gulf every year, claims report

Construction workers in Doha, Qatar. Heat stress from doing manual work in high temperatures is just one risk to health that workers in the region face. Photograph: Pete Pattisson/The Guardian

As many as 10,000 migrant workers from south and south-east Asia die every year in the Gulf countries, according to a report by a group of human rights organisations.

More than half of the deaths are unexplained, said the report, and are commonly recorded as due to “natural causes” or “cardiac arrest”. But Gulf states are failing properly to investigate why so many migrant workers are dying.