BU Research Blog

A few days ago were alerted by ResearchGate that our article ‘Migrant Workers in Qatar: Not just an important topic during the FIFA World Cup‘ has reached 300 reads [1].  We (Padam Simkhada, Pramod Regmi and I) wrote this article a year ago to raise publicity about the conditions of Nepalese migrant workers in the Middle East.  The hazards faced by migrant workers engaged in building the football stadiums in Qatar have been well documented before and during the FIFA Men’s Football World Cup.  Their working conditions are often very dangerous and their living conditions are often very poor.

This time last year  Dr. Pramod Regmi, Dr. Nirmal Aryal, Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen, and BU’s Visiting Professor Padam Simkhada also published ‘Excessive Mortalities among Migrant Workers: the Case of the 2022 FIFA World Cup’ [2].  At the time we wrote “The men’s FIFA Football World Cup 2022 is in full flow in Qatar” which finished with a very exciting final between Argentina and France.  Around the same time BU’s PhD student Yagya Adhikari also wrote a paper on ‘Forgotten health and social care needs of left-behind families of Nepali migrant workers’ [3].  This paper was co-authored by Dr.Pramod Regmi in the Department of Nursing Sciences, Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen, and BU Visiting Faculty Prof. Bhimsen Devkota.

Unfortunately, since the World Cup finished, the world, the media and our politicians have moved on and the health and well-being of migrant workers are no longer headline news.   The reminder this week of 300 reads for our editorial gives us another opportunity to remind everyone of the need to keep the plight of migrant workers in the Middle East (and elsewhere) on the world’s agenda.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health (CMWH)

References:

1. Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen, E., Regmi, P. R. (2022). Migrant Workers in Qatar: Not just an important topic during the FIFA World Cup 2022 . Health Prospect, 21(3). https://doi.org/10.3126/hprospect.v21i3.49835
2. Adhikari, Y.R., Regmi, P.R., Devkota, B., van Teijlingen, E.R. (2022) Forgotten health and social care needs of left-behind families of Nepali migrant workers. Journal of Health Promotion, 10(1):1–4.
3. Adhikari, Y.R., Regmi, P.R., Devkota, B., van Teijlingen, E.R. (2022) Forgotten health and social care needs of left-behind families of Nepali migrant workers. Journal of Health Promotion, 10(1):1–4. https://doi.org/10.3126/jhp.v10i1.50976