The deaths of Nepali migrants in Persian Gulf nations are a source of concern for the Nepali government. In recent days, Nepali authorities have begun to investigate the death of Nepali nationals, often as a result of exploitation and abuse by Arab employers.

According to official statistics, more than 7,500 Nepalis working in Muslim countries have died in murky circumstances since 2000, about 3,500 in Saudi Arabia alone. In the last three months of 2013, 65 Nepalis died in the kingdom.

The authorities in Arab states usually attribute these deaths to natural causes, but fail to explain what these “causes” are.

In recent years, many migrants have returned to Nepal from Gulf countries with horror stories about their working and human conditions, reporting violence, harassment and attempts at forced conversion to Islam.

An official with the Nepali Embassy in Riyadh told AsiaNews that Saudi police tend to attribute the deaths to “natural causes”, refusing to provide any detailed report on the actual cause of death. Most of the migrant workers are aged between 20 and 40 years