Job advertisement becomes death sentence for Christians

On May 7, Shabbir Masih, a 33-year-old father of three, died after inhaling toxic fumes inside a 25-foot-deep sewer line in Faisalabad. Three days earlier, Shakeel Masih and Samar Masih died while cleaning a sewage line in Sahiwal district. In April, three Christian sanitation workers also died in similar incidents in Karachi, in the southern province of Sindh.

“Health workers are indispensable members of society. No individual should risk their life simply by performing essential public service work,” said Aftab Alexander Mughal, director of Minority Concern. “Protecting the rights and safety of Christian sanitation workers is not just a labor issue — it is an issue of human dignity, equality and justice.”

Christians make up about 1.37% of Pakistan’s population and have long complained about being pushed into low-paying sanitation jobs historically associated with marginalized castes in South Asia.

The death toll is higher than reported

Speaking from Lahore, Shafiq Masih, a 49-year-old Catholic sanitation worker, rejected official claims that adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) is provided to workers. “Each Water and Sanitation Authority field office responsible for sewer maintenance reportedly has only one PPE suit, shown only to visiting officials or the media,” he said. “Even that suit imported from Japan is not suitable for local conditions — it is heavy and impractical. The death toll is higher than reported.”

Masih, who helped form a union of nearly 2,900 sanitation workers in Lahore’s Johar Town area in 2023, said little has changed in more than two decades of service. “The Church has no concern for us,” he said, adding that he was assured of only spiritual support when he raised the issue with his parish priest. He also said that after Christian workers refused to enter storm drains without PPE, authorities began hiring day laborers to perform the same tasks.

Court decisions and government response

Rights groups such as Minority Concern have urged Pakistan’s federal and provincial governments, municipal authorities and employers to end discriminatory hiring practices that funnel minorities into dangerous work. In December 2025, the Islamabad High Court banned the use of the phrase “Christians only” in sanitation job advertisements and called for urgent safety reforms to reduce fatalities among sewage workers.

According to Manzoor Masih, from the National Commission on Human Rights (NCHR), violations of the decision have decreased. “The departments involved apologized and reopened the ads after we reported the violations,” he said, expressing concern over the rising number of deaths. He added that the commission took note and requested reports from the provincial offices of the Water and Sanitation Authority.

In November 2025, NCHR filed a petition with the Federal Constitutional Court seeking an end to manual sewer cleaning, arguing that forcing workers into toxic environments without protection violates constitutional guarantees of life, dignity, equality and safe working conditions.

A 2024 NCHR investigative report titled “Risk of Sanitation Work in Pakistan” warned that sanitation workers continue to face deadly conditions due to the absence of occupational safety standards, weak enforcement of labor laws, and discrimination against religious minorities. The report estimates that sanitation workers represent about 2% of Pakistan’s 225 million people and that approximately 80% are Christians.

Based on a survey of 42 sanitation workers in Karachi, the report found that 78.6% were never provided with personal protective equipment, while 57.1% reported workplace injuries, including lung damage and dislocated joints. The document recorded at least 14 deaths between 2022 and 2024, mainly in Punjab, caused by toxic sewage gases and unsafe work practices.

©2026 Catholic News Agency. Published with permission. Original in English: Deaths of Christian sanitation workers in Pakistan highlight systemic discrimination https://www.ewtnnews.com/world/asia-pacific/deaths-of-christian-sanitation-workers-in-pakistan-highlight-systemic-discrimination