5875 Indian workers died in Gulf countries in 2015: Govt

New Delhi: As many as 5875 Indian workers died in Gulf countries last year with maximum number of deaths of 2691 reported from Saudi Arabia, government said today.

Saudi Arabia was followed by UAE which reported 1540 deaths in 2015, Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh said while replying to a written question in Lok Sabha.

While Qatar reported 279 deaths, there were 520 Indian workers who died in Oman, the minister said, adding 223 deaths happened in Bahrain, 611 in Kuwait and 11 in Iraq, reported NDTV.

However, Mr Singh ruled out any co-relation between cases of deaths of Indian migrant workers and employment in hazardous occupations, and said as reported by the Indian missions/posts in Gulf countries, the death of Indian workers is mostly due to natural causes and traffic accidents.