Amnesty International has published a damning new report on the abuse of migrant workers in Qatar. The issue that has already been subject to intense scrutiny by the international human rights community for years and has now once again been brought to the fore. The report shows that despite Qatar’s promises to embark on a series of ‘landmark reforms’ to improve their poor record on workers’ rights ahead of the FIFA World Cup set to take place in Qatar in 2022, violations of workers’ rights are still very much prevalent.
The plight of 78 workers from Nepal, India and the Philippines has been revealed by the Amnesty investigation that documents a number of workers who have been trapped in labour camps without pay. The report focuses on one particular company named Mercury MENA, a contractor working on the projects including, Doha Showcase Stadium and the ‘Future City’ which is scheduled host opening and closing matches of 2022 World Cup.
The case of Mercury MENA
Mercury MENA is a company that contracted the workers to build Lusail city, but failed to pay a number of the workers. The chief executive acknowledged that the company had been having “cash flow problems”, but have not responded to further media queries. The company website also appears to be offline.
Almost 34 employees from Nepal, India and the Philippines are owed money of amounts between £1,500 and £2,000 in both salary and employment benefits. A year after returning home from Qatar many of the workers are still without pay and benefits owed to them by Mercury MENA.
Kafala system
The kafala system in the Gulf affects 23 million migrant workers and has faced criticism in recent years. Kafala in Arabic means “sponsorship system” and is used to monitor migrant workers. The system requires all unskilled labourers to have an in-country sponsor, usually their employer, who is responsible for their visa and legal status.
However, the system means that labourers rights can easily be exploited by avaricious employers.
Earlier this year, Sharan Burrow, General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation said,
“The kafala system means a system of modern slavery where you’re effectively owned by one other person. You go to an agency, you sign a contract but when you arrive in a country under the kafala system an employer can be honourable or not.”
So in reality, the system often leaves workers trapped in poor conditions, without permission to leave the host country because their employers hold their passports and other important personal documents. A number of workers have also taken actions such as stopping wages and employment benefits like healthcare. After having their wages stopped or cut they suffer further, as they cannot send money home to their families, nor can they feed themselves while remaining trapped on the labour camps.
Deaths due to dangerous conditions
The International Trades Union Confederation (ITUC) reported that almost 1200 workers have already died since Qatar won the World Cup bid in 2010. In February this year investigations into safety on building sites was again called into question when a 40-year-old British man died on site in Doha while using “potentially lethal equipment”.
Qatar’s labour reforms
An inquiry by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in 2014 agreed to bring reforms to labourers in Qatar, these reforms were set to include; a minimum wage, lodging of contracts with government so that they cannot be changed once they arrive in Qatar, and implementation of legislation that means that employers could not stop workers from leaving the country.
In November last year, Qatar agreed to end the use of the system by the end of March 2018, saying that they were ‘committed to scrapping’ the exploitative system of sponsored labour which affects two million migrant workers. Despite promises to do so, the new legislation means that workers still need to ask permission from employers before leaving their jobs or travelling,
“Workers who leave their jobs without employer permission can be reported for ‘absconding’, attracting a criminal charge that could lead to arrest and deportation. This is in contravention of international labour laws and standards.”
Progress in treatment of workers in Qatar still not enough
The ILO have said that Qatar had made progress to ensure that workers’ rights were improved and noted that the abolition of the need for exit visas for the majority of workers “marks the removal of a major element of kafala”.
In spite of the positive steps taken by the Qatari government, Amnesty’s investigation reveals the extent of abuses that are still ongoing. Therefore, more must be done to regulate and inspect individual companies to ensure that they comply with new labour laws. Without strict monitoring, it seems that companies still act autonomously, with impunity and putting the lives of workers in danger.