San unexpected goodbye villagers in Gold Bazaar carry a heavy burden performing the last run for Umesh Kumar yadav he was 32. in Nepali tradition a sun lights his father’s funeral pyre thirteen-month-old Shashank is carried by his grandfather in the final weeks before the World Cup he regularly shared Tick-Tock videos of the dormitory where he lived and the construction sites where he worked a day after this video was filmed Umesh died his cousin lakshman has just returned to nebar from Qatar where he also worked he rushed to the site as soon as he heard Umesh had died four of us went to ask what happened they told us Umesh was taking the scaffold lift up when it touched something and broke he fell down this was where it happened the company said their site was safe and that umesh’s death was due to his own negligence and recklessness umesh’s father sold some of his Buffalo to pay for his son to go to Qatar here life is tough so too he’s death a family now without a son father and breadwinner understand my son is gone it’s the money he sent us to pay for our loans and for our children’s education now we don’t have any money I’m not sure what we are going to do the southeast rural belt of Nepal he’s one of the poorest areas in one of the poorest countries opportunities scarce hundreds of thousands have left these districts for Qatar since it was awarded the World Cup as part of our investigation we’ve looked at a number of death certificates going back about six years of workers who’ve died in Qatar not just from here in Nepal but also India and Bangladesh and on a number of them we’ve seen a similar cause of death multiple blunt injuries due to fall from height we’ve spoken to some of the families who believe that these deaths are down to workplace safety not being adequate four years ago he was building infrastructure as the country prepared for the tournament sidesh was due to visit his family here in Nepal on the 12th of October four days earlier they received a call telling them he died at work he was working seven feet below ground when heavy debris fell on him and he was crushed his friend who was also in Qatar told me I wouldn’t have known otherwise Krishna have you received any compensation or the offer of any money from the company it’s nothing we contacted the company sidesh worked for but they didn’t respond so how do so many young men from South Asia end up working in Qatar who often they’re recruited by agents who offer them well-paid jobs in exchange for money to get them a visa to go there the men are then passed from contract to contract which means that their families often don’t know which companies they’re working for and who to go to for compensation when things go wrong a million miles from here the world’s biggest football tournament will soon begin gadar’s government maintains its committed to the dignity and safety of workers on all of its projects some of the young men who left these districts say their experiences off the pitch tell a very different story Virginia BBC News Nepal.
