For first time, Dubai Expo 2020 says 5 workers died on site
Dubai(AP): Dubai's Expo 2020 on Saturday acknowledged that five workers had been killed on site during construction of the massive world's fair, revealing for the first time overall statistics for worker fatalities.
Expo previously said that its 200,000 labourers who built the site worked some 240 million hours in its construction.
It had not offered any overall statistics previously on worker fatalities, injuries or coronavirus infections despite repeated requests from The Associated Press and other journalists.
The admission comes after the European Parliament last month urged nations not to take part in Expo, citing the United Arab Emirates' inhumane practices against foreign workers that it said worsened during the pandemic.
Ahead of Expo, businesses and construction companies are coercing workers into signing untranslated documents, confiscating their passports, exposing them to extreme working hours in unsafe weather conditions and providing them with unsanitary housing, the resolution said.
At a press conference a day after the event's opening, Expo spokesperson Sconaid McGeachin said the information about fatalities was previously available to journalists and referred reporters to a press release about a monument honouring the labourers who built the site from scratch, which offered no additional details.
She said authorities would offer more information about casualties at a later, unspecified time.
McGeachin also acknowledged that authorities were aware of cases involving contractors withholding passports and engaging in suspect recruitment practices" and workplace safety violations on site.
We have taken steps to ensure those have been addressed and very much intervened in cases on that, she said, without elaborating.
The UAE, an oil-rich sheikhdom that relies on low-paid migrant labour from Africa, Asia and Arab countries to keep its economy humming, faces long-standing criticism from human rights groups for treating those workers poorly.
But officials have battled to present a positive image for Expo, the first world's fair in the Middle East that seeks to show off Dubai's pride and draw millions of foreign visitors.
Labourers in the UAE are barred from unionisation and have few protections, often working long hours for little pay and living in substandard conditions.
Dubai's searing early autumn heat proved hazardous even for those visiting the site on its opening day Friday, with some tourists fainting in the 40 degree Celsius (104 degree Fahrenheit) humid weather.
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Four arrested, minor detained for killing teenager in UP's Gorakhpur
Gorakhpur (UP)(PTI) Police on Tuesday arrested four persons and detained a boy in connection with the killing of a teenager at a school here, officials said.
The arrested accused have been identified as Dayanand alias Chhotu, Hrithik Roshan alias Roshan, Uday alias Kishan Kumar and Deepak, all residents of Pipraich police station area here and aged 19-20, the police officials said.
The detained minor will be produced before the Juvenile Justice Board, they said.
Police recovered a country-made pistol and a motorcycle allegedly used by the accused in the commission of the crime, they added.
Superintendent of Police (North) Gyanendra Nath Prasad said the arrests were made following sustained investigation and technical surveillance, and further legal proceedings were underway.
According to police, Sudhir Bharti (17), a class 11 student, was shot dead by the accused on December 26 over old enmity and a dispute triggered by social media posts in the playground of a school in the Pipraich area here.
Based on the complaint filed by Bharti's family, a case was registered under sections 103(1) (punishment for murder) and 61(2) (party to a criminal conspiracy) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and relevant provisions of the Arms Act.
According to eyewitnesses, Bharti was in the playground when he had an argument with a person from the same neighbourhood.
The argument escalated and the accused shot him with a country-made pistol, killing him on the spot, they said.
