Before Arnold Dix saved dozens from an underground tomb, he was a hero for Qatar’s World Cup ‘slaves’
Before Arnold Dix was hailed a hero for helping rescue 41 men trapped underground in India, he was already a “silent hero” to thousands of migrant workers forced to live in slave-like conditions in Qatar.
Australian Story can reveal the international tunnelling expert from Victoria ran a secret, self-funded humanitarian program in the oil-rich emirate in the lead-up to it hosting football’s 2022 World Cup, when ill-treatment of workers from Africa and Asia was rife.
Dix, a barrister, scientist and professor in engineering, organised aid in Qatar and did it secretly out of fear of reprisals from “a multi-billion-dollar human-trafficking system”.
“I was able to assist thousands of people with everything from food to getting passports, to strategies to leave the country, [getting] access to health care, speech pathology, medications … and [getting] them out of jail,” Dix says. He also helped foreign women who had been forced into prostitution.
“I just quietly did that and I did that for years,” says Dix, who went to Qatar in 2011 to consult on the underground safety systems at the country’s new international airport.
“I’m so excited [for those] who’ve turned their lives from slavery into the various things they do around the world. For me, the proof’s in the pudding.”
One of the men Dix helped during an eight-year stint in Qatar, Nigerian-born Waheed Lawal, is now working in the US as a safety engineer on the New Shepard project, which is run by billionaire Jeff Bezos’s aerospace company, Blue Origin.
Lawal credits Dix with pulling him out of poverty in Qatar, helping him to reverse his bad fortunes after he fell victim to an employment scam.
“[Dix] is a silent hero,” Lawal says. “He has impacted countless lives through his enduring acts of kindness, especially towards marginalised groups.”
Dix’s name hit the headlines last November when he was called to India to assist in the rescue of 41 workers who were trapped after the collapse of a major highway tunnel they were building through the Himalayas.
All the men were freed after a marathon, highly publicised 17 days, and Dix was praised not just for his work in the rescue but the respect he showed Indian people and their culture.
Lawal says: “[He’s] a person that doesn’t look at colours of people, doesn’t look at religions, and … just goes ahead and does what is right.”
Lawal was a geologist working on a World Health Organization project in Nigeria when he was approached with the offer of a high-paying executive job in the oil and gas industry in Qatar.
Lawal sold his home to pay $US8,000 ($12, 332) for a visa, but on arrival in Qatar, there was no job.
“I started crying,” Lawal says. “I can’t turn back. It’s too late. I sold everything.”
He was forced to share a bedroom with 15 other men, paying for a bed-bug infested mattress on the floor and scrounging for work and food.
Lawal’s salvation came when he heard there was work at the airport.
“I can still remember the first day I laid my eyes on you,” Lawal tells Dix in a video call.
“We’re about 100 black people and you’re right in the middle of us. You make me personally comfortable … Prior to you, I never stood next to any white man.”
Dix employed Lawal, training him and certifying him as a safety officer, which enabled Lawal to find a better job and save enough money to leave for the US.
Lawal then completed an associate degree in occupational health and safety in Seattle, Washington, and found work in a variety of projects before being employed by Blue Origin.
Lawal says that without Dix, his life would be far different. “You’re helpless. There’s no way out. And now you see [Dix] step up. That’s a big thing. I keep telling that story to anyone I meet. It’s unforgettable.”
Dix says he learned of the plight of foreign workers after witnessing labourers at the airport site fall asleep on the job. He discovered they were starving.
He was shocked by the way desperate migrants were treated in the streets, as if they were invisible. “People would just walk right past,” he says.
Dix couldn’t turn a blind eye. He organised night-time clandestine food drops before deciding to establish training courses through his company to give the workers qualifications.
Dix jokes that from the outside his company looked like Qatar’s worst-performing consultancy. However, it “provided me with an opportunity to continue the humanitarian work, while also helping with the safety on their infrastructure.”
Victor Gadimoh, a Nigerian still living in Qatar, assisted Dix in running the aid program, enabling Dix to remain anonymous.
Gadimoh says many employment scams were run through companies without the knowledge of authorities, and he insists the country has improved its protection of workers since the frenzy of construction for the World Cup.
Gadimoh wanted to tell the story of Dix’s good work in Qatar years ago, but Dix stopped him, fearful for the safety of his family, Greenwood and himself. Gadimoh is glad the man he calls “Prof” can now be recognised for his life-saving work.
“In my culture, good deeds are to be remembered and retold,” Gadimoh writes in a letter. “I don’t think Prof is a rich man — what I saw was that he was prepared [to share] what he had with others. I think he is just a working man with a humanitarian heart.”
Gail Greenwood, Dix’s long-time business manager in Australia who spent time working with him in Qatar, says Dix sold property to fund the mission and devoted all his earnings from that time to helping the stranded foreigners.
“He always jumps in boots and all and this was no different,” Greenwood says. “He just went in to do the maximum he could to get the best outcome.
“He saw a need and he went after it.”
Dix says he knows what it’s like to come up against “horrible people”. He’s been duped and cheated in his life, he says, but he chooses “to stand above that”.
“My view,” Dix says, “is that if people just helped each other when they can, how they can, you would have an instant transformation of the planet.”
SOURCE: ABCNEWS
