The shocking deaths of 11 Indian workers at a resort in Gudauri, Georgia – a popular skiing and paragliding destination in the Caucasus on the Georgian-Russian border – shocked their homeland. The tragedy has also highlighted the glaring lack of legal protections for millions of Indian workers who leave the country for better economic opportunities abroad.
All the workers suffocated from carbon monoxide poisoning in the living quarters of Haveli, the Indian restaurant in Gudauri where they worked. In addition to the 11 Indian nationals, one Georgian national was also killed. The twelve bodies were found on December 14th.
According to initial investigations, “an electricity generator was placed in an enclosed space near the building [deceaseds’] Bedroom that was turned on yesterday [December 13]probably after the power was turned off,” said a opinion from the Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs. The statement added that the gruesome tragedy “implies negligent homicide.”
According to The PrintIndian Foreign Ministry officials said on December 17 that the Indian Embassy in Georgia “is in touch with the families and is working with local authorities to repatriate the remains as quickly as possible.”
The mass extinction has shattered the dreams and destroyed the homes of the victims – many of whom were the sole breadwinners of their families. Most came from the northern state of Punjab. One of the deceased, Sameer Kumar, 20, a resident of Khanna village, had moved to Georgia about six months ago, his uncle told this correspondent over phone.
“We spoke to our child on his birthday on December 14th. He was happy about his new job and planned to save money to build a nice house in the village for his parents. Little did we know that his first job would also be his last,” said the uncle, sobbing.
“We took out a loan of $8,000 to pay the agent for his migration. Since we are now out of money, we have asked the Indian government to repatriate his body.”
Ravinder Kala, 35, was another victim and a resident of Jalandhar. His shocked family said he had been in Georgia for nine years. “He worked very hard to save money for his family of six – parents, wife, two daughters and a son. He couldn't find a job in our village, so we pooled all our efforts to send him to Georgia. We are at a loss for words to describe the tragedy that has befallen us,” said his brother Kishan Kala.
The relatives cited poverty and a lack of opportunities in rural Punjab as triggers for their relatives to migrate. They said the migrants paid between $5,000 and $10,000 in brokerage fees and travel expenses – taking out loans for agricultural land or pawning family jewels to go abroad.
It is no coincidence that all the dead in this tragedy are from Punjab. The Indian state is notorious for sending most illegal migrants abroad through people smuggling operations carried out by unscrupulous agents.
Although Georgia is becoming a popular destination for Indian job seekers, agents say the United States is their first choice for migration.
However, as migration to the country of their dreams becomes increasingly restricted, agents are facilitating migration through “Donkey route“This involves moving from one country to another until the migrants reach either Canada or Mexico and then crossing the U.S. border on foot. The passage is fraught with risk and exploitation as migrants increasingly rely on human smuggling networks to navigate complex, often dangerous routes.
The journey can also be fatal, with reports emerging of families dying along the way. The Bollywood film Dunki, which starred superstar Shah Rukh Khan, highlighted this threat.
Labor rights activists say the Indian government must urgently address the recurring problem of a lack of security for Indian migrant workers. “We have been raising serious concerns with the government for years about the lack of formal control mechanisms to ensure the safety of workers abroad. But not much was done. The government only responds in crises,” said New Delhi-based labor activist Navsharan Jyot.
Jyot added that even Indian workers who travel to conflict-prone regions such as Russia, Israel and Ukraine and are required to register with India's e-migration system often do not follow the procedures. “This leaves thousands of these desperate workers continually at risk, as shown by recurring tragedies over the years,” she added.
Earlier this year, 40 Indian factory workers were killed in a fire at a residential building in the Kuwaiti city of Mangaf. 196 workers lived in the building in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions.
Two years ago, in the run-up to the World Cup in Qatar, there were repeated reports of the harsh living conditions of Indian migrant workers and other violations of their human rights. Similar reports emerged during the construction of infrastructure for the Dubai Expo.
Such incidents are also common in Europe, a continent known for its strict labor laws protecting workers' rights. A 54-year-old Indian migrant worker from Punjab died as a result extreme heat and high workload while working on a flower farm in central Italy earlier this year, amid reports that migrant workers from India are living in slave-like conditions in the Mediterranean country.
In July, Italian police rescued more than two dozen Indian migrants from a farm in central Italy, saying they had been “reduced to slavery” due to debts and the confiscation of their passports by employers. Workers were forced to live in poor conditions, work long hours and have limited job protection. Many of these workers were housed in overcrowded ghettos or abandoned buildings.
Human rights groups have regularly raised concerns about the miserable living conditions of migrant workers. “Despite their significant economic contributions through remittances, a labor-exporting country like India still does not have a robust mechanism to protect its migrant workers abroad,” said Prateek Arora, a Delhi-based labor lawyer who has represented several Indian migrant litigants in their fight for Justice. Arora added that migrants typically spend “thousands of dollars in expenses ranging from local travel, brokerage fees, visas, airline tickets and more.”
The lawyer said the Indian government had failed to protect the rights and dignity of migrant workers by invoking the principle of non-interference in the policies of destination countries. This despite the fact that India is a founding member of the International Labor Organization and has ratified six of the ILO's eight core conventions, Arora added.
Although there are no official figures on the number of Indian migrants currently working abroad, India remains one of the world's leading labor exporting countries. The Kerala Migration Survey 2023 estimates that 2.2 million people have migrated as laborers worldwide, with over 80 percent employed in the Gulf states.
“Because foreign workers in the Middle East have no opportunity to become citizens, their rights are not officially protected by the state, leading to exploitation and abuse. For this reason, migrants continue to face great risks when working abroad,” said Arora.
Arora recommends the creation of a formal system of checks and balances to protect the interests of workers in destination countries; formal agreements with foreign governments; Raise workers' awareness of their rights and take strong punitive action against abusive employers.
