It began with a steady flow of coffins through the arrivals hall at Kathmandu airport. In departures, hundreds of thousands of young men were leaving their lives in Nepal to provide for their families as the human capital fuelling a multibillion-dollar construction boom in the neighbouring Gulf states. In arrivals, on a daily basis, some of their predecessors were being unloaded from the cargo hold in coffins. This telltale sign that something was going very badly wrong for migrant workers led Guardian reporters on a months-long investigation that produced some chastening revelations for Qatar: workers, having paid fees to often unscrupulous middlemen, were facing horrendous conditions upon arrival in the emirate to work. Wages were often lower than billed, living quarters were often inhuman, working conditions were demanding at best, and outrageous, dangerous – and even fatal – at worst.
