Migrant workers employed by the US defence contractor KBR on the British-owned island of Diego Garcia have expressed concerns for their safety after the recent deaths of two of their colleagues, the Observer has learned.
The most recent death on Diego Garcia, which is host to a strategic American military base in the British Indian Ocean Territory, came on 5 January. Relemay Fabula Gan, 41, from the Philippines, died after suffering a collapsed lung following several weeks of illness after a Covid diagnosis, her family said.
Diego Garcia does not have a hospital-grade health facility; workers and military personnel who become seriously ill on the island are typically airlifted to a hospital in Singapore.
Gan had been sick for several weeks on the base before her death. Her family and colleagues believe she could have been saved if she had been taken off the island for treatment. The family said Gan had no underlying health conditions and was an award-winning amateur cyclist.
KBR said that Gan’s death was a tragedy. In a statement, it highlighted that she died after being sent to the US military clinic on Diego Garcia for medical care.
“We requested a medevac for her the same day the military doctor requested it. There was no delay in ordering the medevac once KBR received the request from the military doctor,” a KBR spokesperson said. “All of the medical resources available on Diego Garcia were used to try to prevent the tragic loss of Ms Gan.”
Gan died several hours before the medevac – medical evacuation – flight landed. The situation has led to fears among workers that their lives could be at risk if they suffer a medical emergency.
KBR, previously known as Kellogg Brown & Root, is the main contractor for the base, where it employs about 1,200 workers from the Philippines, India, Kenya and Mauritius.
An Observer investigation in November revealed the death of Saddam Ali, 33, an Indian employee of KBR at the base. His body was held on the island for seven weeks before being repatriated to his family in Delhi.
The family were given Ali’s autopsy report in March. It revealed that he died from sepsis, which had developed after he contracted a bacterial infection – most likely caused by an insect bite – on a trip home to India.
The day before he died, military doctors attempted to place Ali on a portable ventilator, but it “would not function correctly to deliver the required pressure support”, according to the autopsy report, which the Observer has seen.
Ali was pronounced dead on 18 October, after suffering three cardiac arrests within 12 hours. In a statement, a company spokesperson said that Ali was under the care of the military clinic when he died, adding: “KBR did all that it could to assist the family in this difficult and tragic time”. The US Department of Defense did not respond to a request for comment.
Migrant workers recruited for jobs in Diego Garcia are not given formal work visas for their jobs on the island. When they are hired, KBR provides Indian recruits with flights and tourist visas to Bahrain and it then flies them from there to Diego Garcia on a military flight, according to several workers interviewed.
“We are telling lies to the Indian immigration authorities that we are going to visit Bahrain. We are hiding from the Indian government where we work,” one Indian worker said. “If I told the truth to the immigration authorities, they would not allow us to travel because there is no visa in our hands.”
A KBR spokesperson said that all employees on Diego Garcia “have the documentation and government authorisations required for them to work on the base. We follow applicable laws and regulations to employ people on Diego Garcia”.
Workers said that KBR employees who become ill are typically airlifted to a designated hospital in Singapore. Indian workers require a visa to enter the country. Some Indian workers are worried they do not have the necessary documentation to be quickly evacuated to other countries in medical emergencies, they said.
A KBR spokesperson said: “Singapore issues emergency visas for emergency medical matters, and it is only one of several locations where Diego Garcia employees can be medevacked.”
The company did not respond to questions about how long it would take to secure a Singaporean visa for a sick worker.
“In general, while waiting on an answer from Singapore or any other country, we do everything in our power to identify the fastest option,” the spokesperson said. “All of KBR’s Diego Garcia employees from India, Kenya and elsewhere have the documentation and government authorisations required for them to work on the base.”
KBR began recruiting Kenyan and Indian workers for Diego Garcia in 2022. Some of these workers allege they had been charged recruitment fees of up to $1,500 (£1,200) for their jobs by brokers in their home countries.
They claimed that a Kenyan broker demanded that workers pay this fee in instalments from their monthly salaries after they began work on the island. The broker placed his wife in a KBR job on Diego Garcia to further intimidate them into repaying, several workers said.Payment of recruitment fees is a significant indicator of possible labour trafficking since it can trap workers in oppressive jobs while paying off their debts, according to the UN’s International Labour Organization.
KBR launched an investigation after the Observer approached it in January with allegations that employees had paid to get their jobs.
“We completed our investigation into this matter and have taken corrective action,” said the spokesperson. “We have zero tolerance for labour trafficking of any kind, including the payment of recruiting fees, and we always strive to operate with integrity in accordance with our values.”
As a result of KBR’s investigation, the broker’s wife has been dismissed from her job and removed from Diego Garcia. Some Kenyan workers said they were too scared to return home for holidays because of threats and intimidation from the angered recruitment broker.
“He threatened me and said ‘I’ll kill you’ if I talk about it,” said one worker, who provided transaction records, text messages and emails to verify their account.
The US’s federal acquisition regulations for combatting trafficking in persons prohibit government contractors and their subcontractors and brokers from charging recruitment fees.
“Recruitment fees that may lead to involuntary servitude of foreign workers are prohibited by law, executive order and federal regulations,” said Latesha Love-Grayer, director of International Affairs and Trade at the US Government Accountability Office (GAO), which is the audit institution of the federal government.
“The US has a zero-tolerance policy for these types of potential trafficking activities.”
