At rising rate, Nepalese working abroad go home in coffins

[...] on this day, too, six come back in wooden caskets, rolled out of baggage claim on luggage carts.

The causes are often listed as natural death, heart attack or cardiac arrest — the men go to bed after an exhausting day of work and never wake up.

[...] medical researchers say these deaths fit a familiar pattern:

Every decade or so, dozens, or even hundreds, of seemingly healthy migrant Asian workers start dying in their sleep.

Nepalese build highways, stadiums and houses in Persian Gulf states and guard shopping malls, sew sweatshirts and assemble televisions in Malaysia.

Medical journals associate Sudden Unexplained Nocturnal Death Syndrome with genetics, infection and nutritional deficiencies.

Authorities say it could be stress, a changed diet, even homesickness, brought on by physically demanding jobs in extremely hot climates.