For 15 years, Mohammad Abdullah Al Mamun worked in Saudi Arabia, sending money home to his family in Bangladesh. He had met his six-year-old son only once. This year, he planned to return and build a larger house. But on March 8, a missile struck his workers' camp. He suffered severe burns and later died, one of more than two dozen foreign workers killed across the Middle East 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 economies. Now they face a dilemma: keep working in the Middle East, where wages are far higher, hoping 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 states. 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 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.
A ceasefire was announced in early April, but negotiations have stalled. Iran has blocked the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for global oil and gas, and says it will only reopen if the war ends and the US lifts its blockade. The resulting spike in prices of gas, fertiliser and other goods has hit Asian countries particularly hard. Remittances from the Gulf make up about 1% of India's GDP, 3% to 5% in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, and nearly 10% in Nepal.
In Qatar, a 27-year-old Bangladeshi factory worker labours through 12-hour shifts as missiles fly overhead. He earns less than $400 monthly and sends two-thirds home. “We have no choice but to keep working,” he said. Ahmed al-Aliyli, a taxi driver in Qatar, has not sent money home to Egypt for two months. His income has plunged to a third of its former level as the war disrupted travel. “We are the collateral damage of this war,” he said.
