Dorje Gurung
Location: Kathmandu, Nepal
Countries Traveled: 40+
Dorje found himself in a very sticky situation. Just a few days before he had been working with his students at the Qatari international school, then in what seemed like the blink of an eye his life in Qatar got turned upside down.
Sitting in his new home, a Qatari prison cell, all Dorje could do was to reflect on how he ended up in this situation. Originally from Nepal, Dorje had spent many years traveling the world and exploring new countries, most of which he had been welcomed with open arms and a ticket to explore his passions. With almost 40 countries included in his list of exploration he felt like there was very little that could surprise him.
Many Nepali people do not have access to the world in the same way that other more developed countries can provide. Dorje was lucky and hard working, so when he was going through school at just 18 in Nepal, he got word of an opportunity to apply for a scholarship to a school in Italy. With no experience traveling and only the words of his foreign teachers to guide him, Dorje filled out the paperwork and signed the dotted line. His life was never the same from that moment.
He spent the next 30+ years of his life hooked on the travel bug. Road trips across the United States brought him many new friends, getting educated in Europe showed a whole new world of opportunities in writing and science, all the while his passion to be abroad continued to expand. But there are always situations you can find yourself in while traveling the world that make a nice comfortable bed at home seem like the only thing you would ever desire.
Unfortunately for Dorje, he found himself in one of the worst possible cases you could be in. Foreign prison. This was not a typical foreign prison that westerners would experience but a prison that many migrant workers had found themselves in while working in Qatar for the 2022 world cup. So how did he get there?
With a contract signed and a new opportunity ahead of him, Dorje headed off too Qatar to teach at one of the prestigious schools that educated the youth for most of the wealthy Arabic countries. It was 2013 when he began his contract, around this time there were many other Nepali workers who were also contracted in Qatar, their construction based work was much different and thought to be a lot riskier by Dorje. He figured that teaching would be a safe bet in order to earn his income.
Upon winning the 2022 World Cup bid from Fifa, Qatar quickly ramped up construction and brought in hundreds of thousands of migrant workers from across the world over the course of the next decade. Over 8,000 of these workers passed away while in Qatar, but the local authorities can’t seem to match those numbers to international reporting. The Qatari numbers read just over 35 people died since construction began, 3 of which died from work related conditions.
Dorje knew somewhat of the risks that were involved in working abroad, this was no new thing to the people of Nepal. Over 25 percent of the country’s GDP comes from foreign working contracts. Working abroad leads to better opportunities, but it could also end very badly very quickly.
Although Dorje was teaching in an international school, one of the more prestigious positions that a migrant worker could obtain in Qatar, he still faced heavy descrimination and abuse from some of the students in the school. Because of how many of the Nepali workers came from small villages with very little access to education, many of the Qatari people treated them as lesser people put on the bottom rung of the local hierarchy. Dorje was made aware of this very early on in his teaching, but little did he know it would lead to his eventual imprisonment.
As Dorjes work began to become more consistent and he started to develop a routine and understand his role in the school and his role in Qatari society he continued to experience this underlying prejudice towards the Nepali. Some students in the school, not connected to his teachings, began to harass him and abuse him because of his Nepali heritage. This did not sit well with Dorje. As a man who had traveled across the world and who had experienced this before he realized that if the abuse kept up without any correction it would only escalate. So Dorje found himself confronting the students one day after class when they had come to harass him once again.
The three students who had built up this vendetta against Dorje had a plan for him once he pushed back against their harassment. They would report him to their powerful parents and say he insulted Islam. The result would be a quick call to the police and his imminent jailing. This plan worked excellently for them.
So there Dorje was, sitting in his Qatari prison cell not knowing any way to get out. The only thing he could think of was reaching out to a friend who he met in his travels and hope he might be able to help. Once he had told his friend, he sat and waited nervously, scared about what might happen to him in his prison cell.
When all seemed lost to Dorje that one message he had sent out to a past travel friend began to gain momentum. That friend contacted another friend who was a journalist, this journalist wrote a story about Dorjes situation asking anyone that might be able to help to do so. Then one after another more of Dorjes’ friends saw the news and began to help as well. Friends from across the globe; Italy, the United States, Africa, and more all began to send messages to the Qatari government. Friends began petitions on change.org, others began campaigns on Facebook and Tumblr, all with the goal of generating attention.
But Dorje sat in his cell, depressed and defeated with his situation unaware of the whirlwind of support and help that was coming from across the world. His cell walls blocked all this information from him. He began to resign himself to his new future, looking around his new bleak home he was mentally defeated.
Outside across the world the message began to grow and grow now to a size that was creating a mass of pressure on the Qatari government. Foreign journalists in Qatar constantly pestered and berated the officials about his release whenever they could, until finally after 12 days and 11 nights. Dorje was set free.
Still to this day Dorje has lingering trauma from the experience, a nightmarish memory of the events clings to his mind. But the support and kinship that he felt from across the world to help him in his time of need from friends he had met in his journey, helped to make this experience a touching one.
Dorje now finds himself back in Nepal for a short while conducting research and writing on his personal blog about all types of issues across the globe. Right now he is focused on researching a better education route for students in Nepal. His plan is to one day retire in Canada or Europe close to friends he has made on his world travel journey.
“Life is to live for experiences, to create memories, …learning about cultures. There must be one hundred countries where I have friends, all of these came from traveling. Those experiences are more precious to me than any material belongings.”
– Dorje Gurung 2022