Before Arnold Dix saved dozens from an underground tomb, he was a hero during Qatar's 'World Cup of Shame'
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 appalling 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.
Amnesty International dubbed it the "World Cup of shame".
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 [around]. For me, the proof's in the pudding."
One of the men who witnessed Dix's humanitarian work, 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.
Barrister, flower farmer, truck driver and life saver. This is how Arnold Dix became the "international man of mystery" who helped save 41 men from a collapsed tunnel.
"[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."
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 learned that many men were forced to live in cramped, unsanitary conditions, and had to scrounge for food and work.
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, staff 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."
Watch Australian Story's Man Underground on ABC iview and YouTube.
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