At least 1,018 Bangladeshi migrant workers have died in Qatar between 2010 and November 2020, reveals an investigative report of The Guardian yesterday.

They are among more than 6,500 migrant workers from South Asia -- India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka -- who have died in the Middle Eastern country.

Of the dead, 2,711 are Indians, 1,641 Nepalese, 824 Pakistanis, and 557 Sri Lankans.

The Guardian says the total death toll is significantly higher, as these figures do not include deaths of workers from a number of countries, including the Philippines and Kenya, that send a significant number of workers to the oil-rich country.

Qatar is home to some two million foreign workers, including about four lakh Bangladeshis. The accusations of high migration cost, low wage or non-payment of wages, debt bondage, other forms of abuses by agents and employers have been there for long.

Qatar has been under watch by global rights bodies, especially since its winning the bid for the right to host the 2022 World Cup in 2010.

Mohammad Shahid Miah, a Bangladeshi worker, had paid a recruitment agent more than Tk 400,000 to secure his job in Qatar in 2017. The debt has now been passed on to his impoverished parents.

His father told The Guardian the heavy rains that lashed Qatar in late September last year were, to many, an inconvenience. To Mohammad Shahid Miah they were a death sentence.

The rain water seeped into his worker accommodation and came into contact with some exposed electricity cables. When Miah stepped on the wet floor, he was electrocuted and died, his father told the Guardian.

As reasons for deaths, Qatari authorities mention multiple blunt injuries due to a fall from height; asphyxia due to hanging; undetermined cause of death due to decomposition. However, the most common cause by far is so-called "natural deaths", often attributed to acute heart or respiratory failure.

The Guardian found 69 percent of deaths among Indian, Nepali and Bangladeshi workers are categorised as natural. Among Indians alone, the figure is 80 percent.

The Guardian reports while death records are not categorised by occupation or place of work, it is possible many workers who have died were employed on these the World Cup infrastructure projects, says Nick McGeehan, a director at FairSquare Projects that specialises in labour rights in the Gulf.

The country has taken various labour reform initiatives, but Human Rights Watch last year said the efforts to protect migrant workers' right to accurate and timely wages have largely proven unsuccessful.

"Despite a handful of reforms in recent years, withheld and unpaid salaries, as well as other wage abuses, are persistent and widespread across at least 60 employers and companies in Qatar," the rights body said.