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When the doctors peeled back the dressing on his leg, all Bhupendra Malla Thakuri could see was a bloody, infected mess. It was almost four months since the accident, but he was still trapped in Qatar with no money and little food. His employer had all but abandoned him and within a few weeks, the doctors would begin to discuss whether to amputate his leg.
“For everything I needed, there was nothing,” said Bhupendra. “I was in dire straits.”
Eighteen months earlier, Bhupendra, like thousands of other poor young Nepalese men, had sought out a job overseas. He borrowed money to afford a recruitment agent’s fees and got a job as a truck driver in Qatar, which is going to stage 2020 world cup, with a monthly salary of 1,200 riyals (about £200).
On 9 June 2011, Bhupendra, on duty, crushed his leg. Trapped under his truck, Bhupendra lost consciousness and woke up in hospital. He stayed there for three months.
When he was discharged, he was paid the least attention. They didn’t even pay his due salary. Lack of proper care his injured legs become septic.
A few months after the accident, Bhupendra’s company gave him a piece of paper in English to sign. The document asked Bhupendra to agree to return to Nepal and declare he had received all his benefits. Despite his desperate situation, he refused to sign it.
By this time the debt Bhupendra owed in Nepal had risen to 350,000 rupees and he decided the only way to get compensation, or even afford the plane ticket home, was to take his case to court. After a series of tortuous legal battles, Bhupendra was eventually awarded significant compensation and he returned to Nepal on 29 July this year.
However, after all this nightmares, he wants Qatar, which has come under immense pressure for its rights violation of foreign workers, to host the world cup. Bhupendra wants change in how workers are being treated there; but scrapping the event won’t acieve that, he added.
