In a short documentary made for TIME and supported by the Pulitzer Center, VII’s Ed Kashi, Tom Laffay, and Aryn Baker traveled the route that nearly half a million Nepali migrant laborers have taken over the past decade to Gulf Arab countries like Qatar.
Migrant laborers have helped build the stadiums, hotels, transport systems, and entertainment venues to host fans and players for the upcoming men’s World Cup soccer championship starting November 20. The documentary highlights the health impacts of heat stress on these workers on an increasingly hotter planet.
Young Nepali men are often forced to labor in extremely hot conditions, with temperatures of 120 degrees Fahrenheit coupled with 80% humidity and long hours. This has led to an increase in heat-related accidents and illnesses, including the epidemic of Chronic Kidney Disease of Non-Traditional Causes (CKDnt), an illness Kashi has documented through the past decade in seven countries along the global hot zones.
Despite facing strong restrictions from the Qatari government, with limited access to workers, Kashi captured through photography and video the stresses of working in such a brutally hot place. He hopes that this film and accompanying photo story will continue to reveal the issues around heat stress on the workers of the world.
