Zohorul died young, at the age of 23

Zohorul Islam died young, at the age of 23. His passport says he was older and was made by a Bangladeshi broker that increased his age with 5 years.

Together with the new age he had to spent $5000 to get a job in Qatar as a hospital cleaner. The monthly wage was $219 and he would never pay it back.

His sudden death in Qatar crushed the hope of the family, as he was the only man to bear the burden of providing for his loved ones back home. After the death of his father Zohorul became the only male person in this family.

He used to send money to his family every second month. During the lockdown from May to June 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Zohorul was stranded in the labour camp but he got two-month wage from the Qatar government as compensation.

The family who still lives in Lokkipur village at Sharail post office of Singair upazila in Manikganj district, Bangladesh, now consists of his younger sister and bed-ridden mother.

The two elder sisters were married off years ago and their father Abdul Monnaf died before Zohorul Islam was born.

Zohorul’s death in Qatar couldn’t have happened at a worse time. The family was even before his death passing through economic hardship.

They had borrowed money from a local NGO, moneylenders and relatives to send Zohorul to Qatar to work as a cleaner.

Rina Akter, elder sister, and Sharmin Akter, younger sister, of Zohorul claimed that their only brother did not have any previous health complications or diseases in Bangladesh.

A week before his death the family found out that Zohorul became unconscious while he was working in the hospital. He died shortly afterwards on November 11, 2020. The cause of death was according to the death certificate “septic shock and acute leukemia”.

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