In a ruling welcomed by activists, Nepal ’s Supreme Court this month ordered the government to investigate cases of Nepalese workers who lose their lives abroad, amid efforts to crack down on the cause of unusually high death rates in destination countries. Postmortems should be mandatory for migrant workers who die overseas, the judges said in a 27-page ruling delivered earlier in January. Every year, about 1,000 Nepalese workers end up dying in the countries they work, despite being declared fit and healthy before leaving the country. Some 97 per cent of these cases are taking place in Malaysia and the Gulf nations , where autopsies are not often carried out and deaths are often attributed to cardiac arrest and “natural causes”. According to investigative reports, countries such as Qatar – where infrastructure for the Fifa World Cup 2022 is being built – have failed to investigate the sudden deaths of migrant workers. Lawyers and advocates hope the Supreme Court’s decision will pressure Nepalese authorities to do more. “This judgment is relevant because it’s pushing the state to look at where the gaps are, and what the remedies should be,” said Archana Kotecha, head of the legal department at non-profit organisation Liberty Shared. The court case was filed about three years ago by advocates representing the Law and Policy Forum for Social Justice and Pourakhi Nepal. Barun Ghimire, a human rights lawyer who was one of the litigators in the case, said he expected the government to introduce more concrete measures, including mandatory autopsies to be carried out in Nepal, if they had not been done in the destination countries. “Before employment, the [Nepalese] government really needs to verify that the person is healthy. Then if the person dies in, say, three months, and they don’t have answers, this is a problem,” he said. Why are so many overseas Bangladeshi workers dying? Under the new ruling, the Nepalese government must include provisions regarding insurance and compensation to families in labour agreements with destination countries. If a documented migrant worker dies, families are currently entitled to receive 700,000 Nepalese rupees (US$5,800) from the Nepalese government. They should also be able to claim compensation packages of up to US$70,000 from destination countries, but this does not often happen. “If a worker dies … on the worksite, their family may receive compensation. But if he dies in his bedroom or dies of a natural cause – even if it’s a work-related issue – the family will probably receive nothing [from the destination country],” Ghimire said. The lawyer said he had noticed a “pattern” in the causes of death recorded by the destination countries. “One of the main questions is why so many causes of death have been unidentified or labelled as cardiac arrest. There is a pattern, but no explanations and no one has been accountable for this,” he noted. “There seems to be negligence on part of the destination countries and also misconduct from insurance companies.” Qatar, a top destination country for Nepalese, has come under scrutiny in recent years with several reports highlighting poor conditions faced by hundreds of thousands of migrant workers, as it gears up to host the 2022 Fifa World Cup. A United Nations report issued last year found that heat mitigation steps taken by the 2022 World Cup organising committee were “moderately to highly acceptable”, but it urged companies to improve safeguards and readjust working hours to further protect workers. “The sudden and unexpected deaths of often young and healthy migrant workers in Qatar have gone uninvestigated by Qatari authorities, in apparent disregard for workers’ lives,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, in a statement released in October. The law is rarely enforced in favour of these workers and there are very few cases of accountability. Archana Kotecha, activist Rights groups in Nepal have also raised questions about the accuracy of postmortem reports in other countries, such as Malaysia . They have pointed to suspicions that employers may label the deaths as heart failure rather than workplace incidents to avoid paying insurance claims and compensations. In Nepal, low-income families outside Kathmandu Valley are often the most affected by migrant worker deaths, and many have to battle language, legal and financial hurdles while seeking answers, Ghimire said. “They often find themselves in a helpless situation … They are poor and borrow money to go abroad. Then, the breadwinner dies and they don’t know why,” he said. How thousands of migrant women lose their money and children every year Ghimire noted the Nepalese government had introduced some positive measures in recent years, but the causes of death are yet to be addressed and data remained insufficient. In its decision, the judges said it was necessary to ensure all workers took proper check-ups before working abroad. It also said that pre-departure orientation workshops should include up-to-date information about health risks and tips on how workers could cope with them. These training sessions should be monitored, the decision said. According to advocates, the current training was not only outdated, but some agencies were also issuing certificates without workers even attending them. The court ruling also said that the process of repatriation and handling of dead bodies to family members should be easier as well as a dignified one. Every day, about 1,600 Nepalese, mostly men, leave the country to work overseas in industries such as construction in the Middle East , and the palm oil and rubber trades in Malaysia. Cases of workers having to pay excessive recruitment fees, being caught in fraudulent jobs, abusive working conditions and mistreatment as well as having their passports withheld by employers have been well documented. However, legal expert and advocate Kotecha noted that many Nepalese were forced to work overseas because of the lack of opportunities and negative impact of natural disasters back home. The death and exploitation of thousands of migrant workers from other countries in Asia, such as India and Bangladesh, have also made headlines in recent years. “We need to push for this sort of [court] decision elsewhere,” Kotecha said. “There is a blurry line between business practises and what is illegal. The law is rarely enforced in favour of these workers and there are very few cases of accountability.”