Dubai: Migrant construction workers are facing widespread abuse at the hands of their employers in Qatar’s construction sector, a report by Amnesty International concluded recently.
The human rights watchdog has urged the government to end these practices by taking a series of actions.
The report titled “The Dark Side of Migration: Spotlight on Qatar’s construction sector ahead of the World Cup,” released during a press conference in Doha last Sunday in the presence of senior officials from the watchdog, reveals widespread and routine abuse of migrant workers — in some cases amounting to “forced labour”.
“It is simply inexcusable in one of the richest countries in the world, that so many migrant workers are being ruthlessly exploited, deprived of their pay and left struggling to survive,” Salil Shetty, Secretary-General of Amnesty International, said in a press statement, a copy of which was received by Gulf News.
The 169-page report was based on interviews with workers, employers and government officials. The documented abuses include “non-payment of wages, harsh and dangerous working conditions, and shocking standards of accommodation”.
Among the interviewed workers were Nepalese employed by a company that delivers “critical” supplies to a project associated with the planned Fifa headquarters for the 2022 World Cup spoke of labour abuses.
They said they were “treated like cattle”. Employees were working up to 12 hours a day and seven days a week, including during Qatar’s very hot summer months.
Amnesty also interviewed “dozens of construction workers who were prevented from leaving the country for many months — leaving them trapped in Qatar with no way out”.
“Construction companies and the Qatari authorities alike are failing migrant workers. Employers have displayed an appalling disregard for the basic human rights of migrant workers. Many are taking advantage of a permissive environment and lax enforcement of labour protections to exploit construction workers,” said Shetty.
As Fifa World Cup 2022 stadia are being constructed, “the world’s spotlight will continue to shine on Qatar in the run-up to the 2022 World Cup offering the government a unique chance to demonstrate on a global stage that they are serious about their commitment to human rights and can act as a role model to the rest of the region,” added the head of Amnesty.
The workers, many of whom come from South or Southeast Asia, are recruited at a “remarkable rate” to support the construction boom, and Qatar’s population is increasing at 20 people an hour, the official said. But many migrants “arrive in Qatar full of hopes, only to have these crushed soon after they arrive. There’s no time to delay — the government must act now to end this abuse”.
The watchdog urges the government to enforce labour protections — which many employers flout routinely. It also called for an overhaul of the ‘sponsorship’ system, which leaves migrant workers unable to leave the country or change jobs without their employers’ permission.
“Please tell me - is there any way to get out of here? ... We are going totally mad,” one Nepalese construction worker, unpaid for seven months and prevented from leaving Qatar for three months, told Amnesty officials.
Amnesty contacted several major companies with regard to cases it had documented. It said “many expressed serious concerns about Amnesty International’s findings and some said that they had carried out investigations. One company said it had upgraded its inspection regime as a result”.
