Asian workers go on the rampage after their colleague commits suicide

About 500 hundred Asian workers at a garment factory in Bahrain went on the rampage on Saturday night after one of their colleagues committed suicide.

The angry workers damaged machinery, parts of the company’s property and five cars.

A human rights activist expressed concern over the incident and called on authorities to investigate into the incidents of suicide by foreign workers and the complaints launched by them.

Madhu Babu, 28, was found hanging from the ceiling fan in an isolated room on the premises of MRS Fashions which produces a JC Penny clothing line.

Babu arrived in Bahrain eight months ago and was working as a line operator in the factory.

The reason why Babu, a resident of Chittoor district in Andhra Pradesh, India, committed suicide could not be known.

Babu’s death sparked an angry protest by the workers who went berserk for almost two hours and prevented police and medical personnel from removing his body.

The workers ended their protest after the riot police stepped in. Later, they allowed the authorities to remove Babu’s body.

The workers — mainly from India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh — claimed two other workers had committed suicide in the past, another died of a heart attack and five others became insane as a result of harsh working conditions that require them to work for more than 12 hours daily. They blamed the manager of the factory for their ordeal.

The workers also alleged physical abuse by floor managers and said they were not getting proper food and medical care.

Harinder Lamba, general manager of the company, dismissed the claims of mistreatment and low-wages as untrue.

“Babu was suffering from chicken pox and that is why he was isolated,” he said.

“We regret the incident and his family will be properly compensated,” Lamba said.

Meanwhile, Nabeel Rajab, vice-president of the now dissolved Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR), who tried to pacify the agitated workers, expressed concern over the incident.

“Not enough is being done to investigate the suicides by foreign workers,” Rajab said.

The writer is an Arab journalist based in Manama