Healthcare inaccessibility key factor behind migrants' deaths in Gulf states: Study

The latest study of the Vital Signs Project identifies inability to access healthcare as a possible significant factor in the number of preventable deaths of migrant workers in the Gulf states. 

A coalition of organisations from Pakistan, Nepal and the Philippines and Bangladesh's Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU) contributed to the study, titled "The Cost of Living: Access to Health for Migrant Workers in the Gulf."

The study also found that the lack of documentation, affordability and racial discrimination to some degree are key barriers for migrants in getting the healthcare facilities they need, said RMMRU in a media briefing at the National Press Club on Monday.

The Vital Signs project, launched by the London-based rights organisation Fair Square, is a joint initiative to research the deaths of migrant workers from five Asian origin countries – Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and the Philippines – in the six Gulf states of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

The report, based on quantitative and qualitative research in the Gulf States and in multiple countries of origin, describes how multiple barriers prevent low-income migrant workers from accessing non-emergency healthcare in the six states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

Infograph: TBS

Research for this report includes the findings of an in-person survey of 1,101 low-paid migrant workers in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and draws on the insight of numerous medical and public health experts.

The survey of low-paid migrants in Kuwait, conducted between May and July 2022, provides a clear picture of the barriers to healthcare that low-paid migrant workers face.

The cost was a significant barrier, with 30% of respondents saying that they could rarely or never afford healthcare and only 18% of respondents saying they could always afford healthcare.

Another key barrier was a lack of proper documentation, with more than half of the respondents (51%) saying they had been discouraged or prevented from accessing healthcare due to not having physical proof of their identity.

"The most obvious problems are when migrant workers' illnesses or injuries do not meet the threshold for free emergency care. In addition to affordability, a lack of documentation and lack of insurance, many of the migrant workers reported that racial discrimination discouraged or prevented them from accessing healthcare," said Dr CR Abrar, executive director of RMMRU, citing the report.

The report highlights the specific and distinct barriers that female domestic workers face in accessing healthcare services.

Nasima, 35, from Munshiganj, was employed as a domestic worker in Saudi Arabia last year.

"I returned home after six months of staying at the workplace. Apart from being overworked, I was often physically beaten up by my employer. I could not buy medicine as I was not allowed to leave the house," she told The Business Standard.

"I had to rely on the medicine that I had taken with me from Bangladesh, but that ran out quickly," she added.

Within four months of employment, Nasima became severely ill but her employer refused to let her visit a doctor until she became completely bedridden.

The findings of the new report establish a link between the inability of workers to access healthcare and the deaths of migrant workers in the first VItal Sign report published in March 2022. 

The first Vital Signs Partnership report concluded that as many as 10,000 people from South and Southeast Asia die in the Gulf every year and that more than one out of every two deaths is effectively unexplained, which is to say that deaths are certified without any reference to an underlying cause of death, instead using terms such as "natural causes" or "cardiac arrest."

However, this new report finds that the healthcare services in the GCC states are generally not tailored to the specific needs of this population and there is obvious evidence of discrimination in access to healthcare for migrant workers.

Highlighting the cause of negligence in migrant workers' healthcare, Nur Khan, executive director of Ain o Salish Kendra, said, "There is corruption here. There is a weakness in the contract between the sourcing and destination countries."

"We have to keep an eye on whether migrant workers are getting the healthcare services they needed as per the bilateral agreements and the contracts made with the workers," he said.