Qatar easing of exit visa system comes into force

Yahoo – AFP, David HARDING, Oct 28, 2018

Foreign labourers leave the construction site of the Al-Wakrah stadium in
Doha, Qatar, after finishing work on May 4, 2015 (AFP Photo/
MARWAN NAAMANI)

Doha (AFP) - Long-awaited reform of Qatar's controversial exit visa system, which requires foreign workers to obtain their bosses' permission to leave the country, came into force on Sunday, the government said.

"Law No. 13 of 2018... regulating the entry, exit and residency of expatriates is being implemented starting today," the interior ministry announced on Twitter.

Qatar announced in September it had approved legislation to scrap the visa system -- a lynchpin of the country's "kafala", or sponsorship, system which many liken to modern-day slavery.

Under the new law, all but five percent of a company's workforce -- reportedly those in the most senior positions -- can leave without prior permission from employers.

Those not allowed to leave Qatar "for any reason" can file a complaint to the Expatriate Exit Grievance Committee that will "take a decision within three working days", the ministry said.

Some anxious workers took to government social media websites on Sunday, to ask how they could find out if they were among the five per cent.

Qatar's labour minister, Issa al-Nuaimi, said he was "exceptionally pleased" with the implementation of the new law.

"We are proud that the state of Qatar has become an example and a model for labour reform in the region," he told AFP.

Nuaimi added that Qatar wanted to give workers in the country, the "best standards possible".

Scrapping the exit permit is the biggest announcement made so far since Qatar agreed last November to enter into a three-year agreement with the UN's International Labour Organization (ILO) to oversee reform.

The ILO's Houtan Homayounpour, head of the labour agency's project office in Doha, said on Twitter that the reform "will have a direct and positive impact on the lives of migrant workers".

The football World Cup 2022 host has come under intense pressure to reform its labour laws, which have been repeatedly denounced by human rights groups.

Critics have long argued for abolition of the exit visa system.

Research published last year by rights group Migrant-Rights.org found around a quarter of all exit visa requests were denied by the government.

Vani Saraswathi, associate editor and director of projects with Migrant-Rights.org, said the reform was "long overdue and welcome", but added a warning.

"We have to be cautious about celebrating it as a huge development," she said.

"Passport confiscation is still rampant and the law also allows for employers to hold passports with the workers' permission."

She also noted that the law does not cover domestic workers, often seen as the most vulnerable.

Rights groups have argued that without the proper safeguards, relaxation of the visa system could lead to unscrupulous employers holding workers' passports.

A study earlier this year by Qatar University's Social and Economic Survey Research found that 53 per cent of migrant workers said their bosses held their passports.

There are some two million foreign workers in Qatar.

Top brands including H&M, Zara to boycott Bangladesh garment summit

Yahoo - AFP, February 22, 2017

H&M, C&A, Tchibo and Inditex which owns Zara -- all top clients of Bangladesh's
$30-billion garment industry -- have pulled out of the Dhaka Apparel Summit

Leading fashion brands including H&M and Zara will boycott a key industry conference in Bangladesh in support of garment workers who have been sacked, hunted or jailed for participating in wage strikes, the companies said Wednesday.

H&M, C&A, Tchibo and Inditex which owns Zara -- all top clients of Bangladesh's $30-billion garment industry -- have pulled out of the Dhaka Apparel Summit, the signature annual event in the global textile hub, scheduled for Saturday.

The move follows strikes in December when tens of thousands of garment workers in the industrial town of Ashualia staged mass protests demanding a three-fold hike in pay, which can run as low as $68 a month.

Dutch clothing brand C&A said, "C&A together with other apparel brands, including H&M and Inditex decided not to participate in the BGMEA Dhaka Apparel Summit."

"We strongly encourage the Government of Bangladesh to take immediate steps to ensure the protection of the workers' rights, with special attention to the legitimate representatives of the workers who have been arrested," C&A spokesman Thorsten Rolfes told AFP.

A spokesman for Swedish apparel giant H&M confirmed the boycott.

"H&M believes that attending the Dhaka Apparel Summit would create confusion and send the wrong signals regarding our commitment to freedom of association and that the ongoing situation must be peacefully resolved," spokesman Iñigo Sáenz Maestre said.

The strike, which lasted for a little over two weeks, was squashed, with some 1,600 employees sacked and 34 arrested, while cases alleging burglary, arson, vandalism and extortion, among other charges, were filed against more than 1,500 workers.

Last week union leaders said the workers were "living in constant fear of being arrested as the police hunt those who were involved in the strikes".

The summit is hosted by the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), an industry body that represents the country's 4,500 clothing factories, and features Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina as its keynote speaker.

BGMEA president Siddiqur Rahman told AFP that they "did not get any communication from any brand not attending the summit".

International rights group Clean Clothes Campaign welcomed the brands' decision to withdraw participation and said it would be "a major embarrassment" for the government and the organisers.

CCC spokeswoman Mirjam van Heugten said, "Unless all detainees are released, unsubstantiated charges are dropped, and other acts of intimidation and harassment of trade unions are stopped... (the brands) cannot credibly participate in a summit on "sustainable growth" of the industry."

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Bangladesh eases trade union laws after factory building collapse

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Bangladesh orders mass arrests over 2013 factory disaster

Yahoo - AFP, December 21, 2015

The Rana Plaza garment factory building collapsed in Savar, on the outskirts

of Dhaka, in April 2013 killing more than 1,100 people

A Bangladesh court Monday ordered the arrest of 24 people and seizure of their assets after they failed to turn up to face murder charges over the collapse of a garment factory that killed more than 1,100 people.

Senior judicial magistrate Mohammad Al Amin issued the warrants after his court accepted the murder charges against the 24 fugitives for the collapse in April 2013 of the Rana Plaza factory compound, one of the world's worst industrial disasters.

"The court accepted the charge sheet against 41 people who have been charged with murder over the Rana Plaza disaster," prosecutor Anwarul Kabir told AFP.

"The court issued arrest warrants against 24 of them as they have absconded. It also ordered the seizure of their property," he said, adding police have been asked to report on their arrests by January 27.

Factfile on the 2013 Rana Plaza factory collapse in
Bangladesh that killed over 1,100 garment workers. 

Kabir said the court had accepted the charges against four government factory and building inspectors despite attempts by their departments to shield them from prosecution by citing public servant immunity rules.

The case was delayed by "several months" due to the non-clearance by the various departments, Kabir said, adding that prosecutors now expect the trial to start by April next year.

Among the 41 who have been charged with murder is Sohel Rana, the owner of the nine-storey complex on the outskirts of Dhaka which collapsed on April 24, 2013, at the start of the working day.

Rana, who is in custody awaiting trial, became Bangladesh's public enemy number one after survivors recounted how they were forced to start work despite complaints about cracks developing in the walls the previous day.

At least 1,138 people are known to have died in the tragedy, the worst in the country's history. Rescue workers struggled for weeks to retrieve the bodies from the ruins but several people are still unaccounted for.

More than 2,000 people were injured, including many who lost limbs.

Seven owners of factories housed in the complex and 12 government officials responsible for safety and inspections were also charged with murder.

Bangladeshi property tycoon Sohel Rana is among

 the 41 who have been charged with murder over

 the 2013 factory collapse

Workers 'slapped'

Rana's parents, who jointly owned the building with him, and the mayor and councillor of the town of Savar where it was located, were also charged.

Those facing arrest including "associates of Rana" who "slapped and forced" the workers to join the shift, Kabir said.

In a separate case Rana and 41 others have been charged with violating building codes and with illegally extending the six-storey building, which was initially approved as a shopping mall, into a nine-storey factory complex.

The disaster highlighted appalling safety problems in Bangladesh's $30 billion garment industry and triggered global concern as protesters marched to demand action from Western retailers.

A host of such retailers had clothing made at the five factories housed at Rana Plaza, including Italy's Benetton, Spain's Mango and the British low-cost chain Primark.

The disaster prompted sweeping reforms including new safety inspections and higher wages in the industry which employs about four million workers.

Two groups of top retailers such as Walmart and H&M have since launched drives to clean up the sourcing factories. They hired engineers to review fire, building and electrical safety in thousands of garment plants.

Under the clean-up campaign, engineers have identified safety problems in each of the plants, and drawn up recommendations for upgrades as well as setting deadlines for the owners to implement remedial measures.

First Iran hajj dead flown home nine days after stampede

Yahoo – AFP, Arthur Macmillan, 3 Oct 2015

The Iranian honour guard carries the caskets of Iranian pilgrims, killed in a stampede

 at the annual hajj, during a repatriation ceremony on their arrival on October 3,

2015 in Tehran (AFP Photo/Atta Kenare)

Tehran (AFP) - The first bodies of Iranians killed in a stampede at the hajj arrived home from Saudi Arabia Saturday after a controversial nine-day delay and questions over the final death toll.

President Hassan Rouhani and other top officials laid white flowers on coffins at a sombre ceremony in Tehran for the 104 pilgrims -- among 464 Iranians declared dead in the September 24 crush.

Iran has accused Saudi Arabia of incompetence in its handling of safety at the hajj, further souring relations already strained by the civil war in Syria and conflict in Yemen.

Iranian officials pray over the caskets 

of Iranian pilgrims killed in the hajj 

stampede as the bodies arrived in Tehran

 on October 3, 2015 (AFP Photo/Atta 

Kenare)

"If it were proved that some (authorities) were guilty in this accident, we will not forgive," Rouhani said as the bodies emerged in red caskets from a cargo plane at Mehrabad Airport in Tehran.

The president was accompanied by the heads of Iran's judiciary and parliament as well as the chief of staff of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's office.

"Our language in this accident was one of brotherhood and respect and the language of diplomacy was used when necessary," Rouhani said. "If needed, the language of authority will also be used."

Iran has been deeply critical of the slow pace at which the Saudi authorities have identified the dead.

More bodies were expected to be flown home later on Saturday but Iran's health minister said not all of the Iranian dead had yet been found and many were thought to be lying unidentified in sealed containers.

"We hope with Saudi cooperation, we can find the bodies of these victims which might be among the corpses from other countries," Hassan Hashemi told the official IRNA news agency.

Iranian families face a further delay in receiving their loved ones for burial as DNA testing has been deemed necessary.

"The ID tags on the coffins do not match the victims' identities and the existing lists in Mehrabad Airport," the ISNA news agency cited an unnamed official as saying.

Memorial ceremonies on Sunday

The tragedy will be marked with memorial ceremonies in Tehran and in provincial capitals on Sunday.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani (C) 

attended a repatriation ceremony for the

 pilgrims who were among at least 464 

Iranians killed in the hajj stampede on 

September 24, 2015 (AFP Photo/

Atta Kenare)

Khamenei, Iran's supreme guide, demanded on Wednesday that Saudi Arabia apologise to the bereaved and to the world's Muslims

"The slightest disrespect towards tens of thousands of Iranian pilgrims in Mecca and Medina and not fulfilling their obligation to transfer holy bodies will have Iran's tough and fierce reaction," he said.

Rouhani called for a fact-finding commission into the disaster as all Islamic countries deserved to know the cause.

Saudi authorities have yet to provide a breakdown of the nationalities of the 769 pilgrims they say died, but many countries have provided their own individual tolls.

Tallies of the dead from foreign officials and media from 24 countries put the dead at 1,036, well in excess of the Saudi figure.

With many more pilgrims still listed as missing, Iranian officials say the real death toll is between 2,000 and 4,000, and many of the dead have yet to be identified.

It took a week before Iran was able to confirm 464 of its nationals had died as officials spent days scouring Saudi hospitals for the missing without success.

It is the highest confirmed death toll among foreign nationalities by far. Egypt has 126 dead and 110 missing, and Indonesia has 91 dead.

While Iran has been vocal, official reaction elsewhere in the Muslim world has been more restrained, although survivors and bereaved families have criticised safety measures in place at the hajj.

Bangladesh court bans garment factory disaster film

A film depicting Bangladesh's 2013 Rana Plaza disaster has been banned by the high court. Justices ruled film would "negatively portray" nation's $25 billion garment industry.

Deutsche Welle, 24 Aug 2015

High Court judges ruled Monday that a drama based on the real-life garment factory disaster could not be screened for six months. The ruling was in response to objections filed by a trade group representing garment factory owners.

"The judges imposed the ban following concerns that it would negatively portray Bangladesh's sensitive garment sector in the world and can also create [a] law and order problem in the country," Deputy Attorney General Mokleshur Rahman told the AFP news agency.

The film is entitled Rana Plaza after the factory complex that collapsed in April 2013, killing at least 1,138 people, mostly female garment workers.

The 137-minute drama was scheduled to premiere September 4 at more than 100 cinemas across Bangladesh following last month's clearance from the Bangladesh Film Censor Board.

A national heroine

19-year-old Reshma Akter was rescued
 from the rubble of the Rana Plaza 17 days
after the building collapsed.

The plot centers on the dramatic real-life rescue of a 19-year-old garment worker named Reshma Akter from the ruins of the nine-storey Rana Plaza 17 days after it collapsed.

Images of a dazed Akter pulled alive from the wreckage were beamed around the globe and since marrying her boyfriend and taking a job in the hospitality industry, she has become a venerated figure in Bangladesh

"The Rana Plaza is also about Reshma's love story, which tries to raise awareness about the life of the country's millions of woman garment workers," director of the movie Nazrul Islam Khan told AFP.

But a petition by the Bangladesh National Garment Workers Employees League - which represents employers - argued that the film's use of graphic television footage ran counter to censorship rules, which the court accepted.

The ruling gave the Film Censor Board four weeks to justify its decision to try to give the film a certificate. But the court did not explain why the ban would only apply for six months, or in what circumstances it might be revisited after that period.

Khan, the film's director, said he's confused by the court ruling noting that he'd already cut scenes deemed "too cruel" by censors.

"I don't know what prompted the court to ban the film. Rana Plaza movie is about the tragedy at the factory complex," he said.

The deadly disaster at the garment factory that supplied many European household brands brought to light substandard working conditions of much of Bangladesh's workforce.

jar/jil (AFP, dpa)

Li Keqiang pays respects to firefighters lost in Tianjin blasts

Want China Times, Xinhua 2015-08-17

Li Keqiang pays his respects to the firefighters confirmed to have died in the
 explosions, Aug. 16. Many other firefighters remain unaccounted for. (Photo/CNS)

Bowing to photos of the deceased firefighters, Premier Li Keqiang on Sunday paid respects to the young men who lost their lives in two massive warehouse blasts in the north China port city of Tianjin that have killed 112.

"They are all heroes and deserve the respect of the whole country," Li said while visiting a brigade of the Tianjin fire department.

At least 21 firefighters have been killed after two huge explosions tore through a warehouse in Tianjin's Binhai New Area late Wednesday night, and 85 other firefighters remain unaccounted for.

Li said all the dead — whether official firefighters or contractors — will enjoy the same posthumous honors and their families will be given the same compensation.

The premier also visited the firefighters and soldiers still racing against the clock to search for the missing people at the blast site, praising their valor and contributions. "When people's lives are at risk, you go to the rescue without fear or hesitation and make sacrifices," Li said. "The Party and the government thank you."

He asked them to ensure their own safety in their rescue work.

Li also led officials to stand in silent tribute to all the dead in the disaster before a meeting of the rescue headquarters.

The premier arrived in Tianjin Sunday afternoon. His first stop was the quarantined area, where he oversaw rescue, search and cleaning operations. He urged the continued search for the missing people and thorough elimination of dangerous remains of the exploded chemicals.

Li told the environmental staff to keep monitoring the environment around the clock and release accurate, authoritative environment information as the public are highly concerned about the air, water and soil quality around the blast site.

Li visited the temporary relocation site and demanded considerate services for the displaced citizens.

At hospitals, he promised the wounded the best medical resources. He also asked the medical staff to do their best to minimize fatalities and disabilities.

At the meeting on further rescue plan, Li ordered swift release of information concerning the explosions in order to let the public know the real picture in timely manner. No secondary accidents are allowed. "The accident has incurred heavy casualties and taught us an extremely painful lesson," the premier said at the meeting.

The investigation team set up by the State Council, China's cabinet, must find out the cause thoroughly and punish those with dereliction of duty severely, he said.

Li ordered a nationwide overhaul of work safety focusing on dangerous chemicals and inflammable materials.

Related Article:

China's police chief urges transparency on Tianjin blasts

Chinese prosecutors announce probe into deadly warehouse blasts

Chinese prosecutors are to probe whether deadly blasts at a warehouse in Tianjin were due to illegal storage of dangerous materials, state media say. The explosions killed 112 people and injured hundreds.

Deutsche Welle, 16 Aug 2015

State prosecutors in China said on Sunday they had started an investigation to see whether owners of the warehouse where the explosions occurred were guilty of violating laws on the storage of hazardous chemicals.

The announcement comes as authorities confirmed that hundreds of tons of the toxic chemical sodium cyanide had been on the site of the blasts late Wednesday evening in a mostly industrial area of the northern port city of Tianjin, 120 kilometers (75 miles) east of Beijing.

Such a large amount would be a clear violation of rules cited by state media that a maximum of 10 tons of the chemical may be stored at any one time. Chinese laws on hazmat storage also stipulate that such substances should not be kept closer than 1 kilometer from residential areas and public structures.

The Chinese military is helping with cleanup operations

Sodium cyanide can form a flammable gas upon contact with water, and members of the public have questioned whether this fact had been taken into account by firefighters responding to the accident. At least 21 firefighters were among those killed in the warehouse fire and ensuing explosions, making the disaster the deadliest for the Chinese fire brigade in more than six decades.

Eighty-five of the 1,000 firefighters sent to combat the blaze remained unaccounted for on Sunday, with 88 bodies of victims still unidentified.

In addition to the 112 people confirmed dead, more than 700 people were hospitalized with sometimes serious injuries. Many were hurt by glass shattered in the huge fireballs that rose over the city on Wednesday night.

The explosions caused massive
blast waves

Official reassurances

In the face of internet rumors to the contrary, authorities have sought to reassure the public that the air in Tianjin remains safe to breathe, despite slightly raised levels of some pollutants.

In a bid to further dispel public mistrust, the Chinese premier Li Keqiang arrived in the city on Sunday afternoon and came within a kilometer of the blast site without wearing any form of protective clothing.

Li also visited those injured and displaced by the disaster.

The government has also shut down a total of 50 websites and 360 social media accounts for "creating panic by publishing unverified information or letting users spread groundless rumors," according to the Cyberspace Administration of China.

The Tianjin accident was one of the deadliest to occur in China in recent years. In June 2013, a fire at a poultry plant in the northeastern province of Jilin killed 121 people. In August 2014, 97 died in an explosion at a metal plant in eastern Jiangsu province.

tj/sgb (AP, dpa, AFP)

Related Article:

Deadly cyanide was stocked at Tianjin blast site

Chemical experts assess China blast site after 50 killed

AirAsia, Indonesia and Effective Crisis Management

Jakarta Globe, Bloomberg, Dec 31, 2014

President Joko Widodo on board a Hercules plane taking part in the
search for AirAsia Flight QZ8501, on Tuesday.(Antara Photo/Andika Wahyu)

In his run for president this year, Joko Widodo pledged to bring greater openness and accountability to Indonesia. As his administration faces its first international crisis, the mysterious crash of an AirAsia jet, he’s proving to be a man of his word.

You can tell a lot about a nation from its response to great tragedy, whether it’s Japan’s 2011 Fukushima crisis, Malaysia’s lost Boeing 777 in March or South Korea’s deadly ferry accident in April. So far, Joko has performed admirably.

Since news broke on Sunday that an Airbus A320 flying from Surabaya, Indonesia, to Singapore vanished with 162 people on board, Joko has coordinated search-and-rescue efforts, demanded a review of air safety regulations and called on weather agencies to provide timelier information. His government is giving steady updates, and Joko has sought help from Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea, Australia and, remarkably, China and the US in finding Flight QZ8501.

In contrast, last spring, Malaysia was widely criticized for the secrecy and paranoia that surrounded its search for a Malaysia Airlines flight that disappeared with 239 people aboard. Welcoming US and Chinese military ships into Indonesia’s orbit speaks to Joko’s confidence as a leader.

Let’s hope this is a harbinger of future competence. Joko is the fifth president since dictator Suharto was ousted in 1998 but the first true political outsider to run Southeast Asia’s biggest economy. Because he’s not a member of a dynastic family or the military, he isn’t beholden to vested interests looking to siphon the benefits of Indonesia’s 5 percent growth. That gives him latitude to dismantle the kleptocracy that Suharto built during his 32-year reign and raise Indonesia’s competitiveness.

As governor of Jakarta, starting in 2012, Joko brought a surprising level of transparency. He moved budget procurement and tax collection processes online. He’s now working to make national government services electronic to reduce opportunities for graft and improve efficiency. Opening up the process of granting licenses for developing infrastructure, mines and plantations alone would do much to clean up the nation’s political and business climate.

Indonesia’s aviation industry also has long cried out for greater oversight. Its carriers, air traffic controllers and the skies around the archipelago of 250 million people are notorious for their regulatory laxity. As recently as 2009, state carrier Garuda was banned from European Union airspace. That laxity is a product of decades of cronyism and institutional neglect.

While Joko’s predecessor Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono made inroads against graft, Indonesia’s still ranks behind Djibouti and Argentina and a sober 22 rungs below India in Transparency International’s latest corruption perceptions index. The daylight Joko wants to shine on the government is needed to attract more foreign investment and ensure that scarce revenues are spent on education, health care and poverty programs.

The openness and assertiveness with which Joko has responded to Flight QZ8501 gives me reason to hope that Indonesia will be prepared for whatever comes its way.

William Pesek is a Bloomberg View columnist based in Tokyo and writes on economics, markets and politics throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

President Joko Widodo, center, talks to the head of Indonesia’s national search
 and rescue agency, Soelistyo, left, and Chief of the Sea Security Coordinating
 Agency, Vice Admiral Desi Albert Mamahit, right, shortly before a news conference
 about missing Indonesia AirAsia flight QZ 8501 in Jakarta, on Dec. 29, 2014.
 (EPA Photo/Bagus Indahono)

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Taiwan gas explosions kill at least 24 people, injure many more

At least 24 people have been killed and 270 others injured in a series of underground gas explosions in Taiwan. The blasts came after local residents had reported smelling the scent of gas.

Deutsche Welle, 1 Aug 2014

Thousands of emergency workers and soldiers were deployed to Kaohsiung, Taiwan's second-largest city on Friday, where an operation was ongoing to search for both survivors and victims of the blasts.

Several people were reported missing and local media reports indicated that the death toll could rise sharply.

Four firefighters who had been called to the area to investigate a possible gas leak were reported to have been among those killed in the explosions, which occurred several hours after their arrival.

The blasts, which occurred in a district of Kaohsiung that is packed with shops and apartment buildings, hurled concrete and vehicles through the air and ripped open large craters in several streets.

Taiwan's minister of economic affairs told a press conference on Friday, that the source of the blasts appeared to have been a gas that is a by-product of the processing of fossil fuels.

"Based on our preliminary investigation, the gases spilled included propene," Chang Chia-juch said.

Urban gas pipes to be checked

The gas line that exploded belongs to the state-owned CPC Corporation, according to the Associated Press. The source and cause of the leak was not immediately clear.

Whatever the cause of the blast, Tiawan's president, Ma Ying-jeou pledged that all pipes used by petrochemical companies under urban areas would be checked to avoid a recurrence of the incident.

"We will make further arrangements and inspections to avoid this kind of disaster from occurring again," President Ma said in comments broadcast on Taiwanese television.

The president also expressed his condolences to the families of the victims.

pfd/kms (AP, dpa, Reuters)

The aftermath of the gas explosions in Kaohsiung,
Aug. 1, 2014 (Photo/CNA)

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Ferry disaster: South Korea's president apologises for official failings

Park Geun-Hye, whose PM resigned over sinking, says government should have fixed 'long-running evils' that caused it

theguardian.com - AFP, Seoul, Tuesday 29 April 2014

Park Geun-hye at a memorial altar in Ansan for victims of the ferry disaster.
Photograph: AP

South Korea's president has apologised for her government's failure to prevent a ferry disaster that left some 300 people dead or missing.

Two days after her prime minister resigned over the tragedy, Park Geun-Hye voiced profound regret at the systemic and regulatory failings that contributed to the capsize of the 6,825-tonne Sewol on 16 April.

"I feel so regretful for having been unable to correct such long-running evils and letting an accident like this take place," she said in a statement to her cabinet that was broadcast on national television.

Park's government has been widely criticised over perceived corruption and lax safety standards that may have led to the disaster, with claims that the ferry was overloaded and the passenger list inaccurate and incomplete.

Relatives of the more than 100 passengers still missing have blasted the response to the sinking, saying delays in launching the rescue cost lives.

"I don't know how to apologise for the failure to prevent this accident and for the insufficient first response," Park said.

"I am sorry to the people and heavy-hearted that many precious lives were lost."

Earlier on Tuesday the president had travelled to Ansan, south of Seoul, where she paid her respects to a memorial for the hundreds of schoolchildren who died in the disaster.

Of the 476 people on board the Sewol, 325 were students from the same high school in Ansan. Only 75 of the students were rescued.

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More than 450 Indian migrants dead in Qatar in 2012-13

Google – AFP, 17 February 2014

File picture shows a migrant labourer walking through a construction site in

the Qatari capital Doha, on October 3, 2013 (Al-Watan Doha/AFP/File, Karim Jaafar)

New Delhi — More than 450 Indian migrants working in Qatar have died in the last two years, according to new data from the Gulf state which is under pressure over its rights record ahead of the 2022 World Cup.

In response to a Right to Information request filed by AFP, the Indian embassy in Qatar gave figures detailing the number of deaths in 2012 and the first 11 months of 2013.

On average about 20 migrants died per month, peaking at 27 in August last year. There were 237 fatalities in 2012 and another 218 in 2013 up to December 5.

A computer-generated image released by

 the Organising Committee of Qatar 2022

 shows the stadium to be built in Al-Wakrah

 for the 2022 World Cup (Qatar 2022 

committee/AFP/File)

The embassy did not give any details about the circumstances of the deaths, but the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) said the data showed an "exceptionally high mortality rate."

The bad publicity surrounding Qatar's record on worker rights has until now mostly been focused on Nepalese workers whose plight has been highlighted in a string of media reports.

An official at the Nepalese embassy in Doha told AFP last month that 191 deaths had been registered in 2013, many of them from "unnatural" heart failure, compared with 169 the year before.

One construction worker who spoke to AFP after returning to Nepal said he had had his passport confiscated and was forced to work from dawn to dusk, often without a protective helmet or gloves.

The Guardian newspaper group reported at the weekend that human rights group Pravasi Nepali Co-ordination Committee had concluded that 400 Nepalese workers had died on Qatar's building sites.

- South Asian workers -

Most of the labourers working on the new stadiums and vast infrastructure projects ahead of football's biggest tournament in the wealthy Gulf state are from South Asia.

"Qatar is choosing to prolong the system of modern slavery which is the root cause of the incredibly high death toll for workers," ITUC secretary general Sharan Burrow told AFP in a statement.

The ITUC, which has pioneered opposition to Qatari labour law, estimates that as many as 4,000 workers might die on World Cup building sites before a ball is kicked in 2022.

Oil- and gas-rich Qatar has a "kafala" system which means migrants are sponsored by an individual who then exerts enormous control over their lives and leaves some workers trapped.

The case of French footballer Zahir Belounis highlighted the system last year when he finally left Doha after being stranded for a year as his club Al-Jaish had refused to grant him an exit permit.

Theo Zwanziger, member of the FIFA

Executive Committee, after a meeting on

the situation of migrant workers in Qatar,

at EU Headquarters in Brussels on

February 13, 2014 (AFP/File, John Thys)

On February 11, the Gulf state issued new guidelines aimed at protecting expatriate workers, suggesting they should be paid properly and promptly and housed adequately.

Amnesty International said in November that workers were being treated like "animals," and urged football's world governing body FIFA to press Qatar to improve conditions.

FIFA executive committee member Theo Zwanziger said last Thursday that the World Cup could help improve the country's "appalling" human rights record by inviting closer scrutiny.

The embassy in Qatar says that the exact number of Indians in Qatar is unknown, but it was estimated at close to 500,000 at the end of 2012, about 26 percent of Qatar's total population.

Under India's Right to Information law, government bodies are bound to hand over information requested by members of the public or journalists providing it is not harmful to the national interest.

AFP also asked to see any any correspondence between the embassy and the Indian government regarding the treatment of its nationals, but this request was declined.

An Indian foreign ministry was not immediately available for comment.

Related Article:

Qatar 2022 World Cup organisers appalled by work conditions