Bide Majakoti knows the horror of forced labor in Qatar first-hand. He travelled from Nepal on the promise of a well-paid job and paid high recruitment fees to secure it. When he arrived he was forced to accept a different job and his nightmare began.
Unfortunately, as construction for the football World Cup 2022 intensifies, more migrant workers will be vulnerable to forced labor than ever before.
Over 90% of Qatar’s workforce are migrant workers, brought to the country under kafala, the ‘sponsorship’ system.1 It is a foreign worker sponsorship programme that jeopardises basic human rights of migrant workers, allowing slavery-like conditions to flourish leaving thousands vulnerable to forced labor and other human rights abuses.
Bide was forced to work in the blistering heat without safety precautions or pay. With no other option open to him, he returned home saddled with debt. While Bide ultimately returned home to tell his story, thousands of others never get that chance.
Many others’ experiences are even worse; workers often have their wages withheld, are denied exit visas, are housed in dirty, unsafe conditions and forced to work long hours with little rest despite the high heat.2
Right now we have an opportunity to help. The Ministry of Labor made promises to make substantial reform to the kafala system, ensuring the protection of migrant workers.3
Last year, we were pleased to see that the government of Qatar had introduced new laws to reform the kafala system.4 These reforms allow workers to leave undesirable jobs and freely seek employment elsewhere.
But, several months later, full implementation is still lacking. Activists and lawyers working on the ground say that a lack of sufficient resources and the sheer volume of cases is the real cause of the lag.5
When the World Cup is over, there will be less eyes on Qatar and less urgency for the government to implement these crucial reforms.
Call on the Ministry of Labor to deliver on critical reforms they promised and end forced labor in Qatar.
Watch ‘Undercover film of life inside Qatar’s labor camps’ by Equal Times
Notes:
- https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde22/3548/2016/en/ ↩
- https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/middle-east-and-north-africa/qatar/report-qatar/ ↩
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-34972384 ↩
- https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/feb/23/revealed-migrant-worker-deaths-qatar-fifa-world-cup-2022?CMP=share_btn_tw ↩
- https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2021/3/15/labour-law-changes-are-qatars-migrant-workers-better-off ↩
Chukwuka C.,
Aaron J.,
R N.,
Juliet S.,
Jesús Lidia C.,
Ursula A.,
I would like to see the fans boycott the world Cup on mass, and leave the owners and contractors who employ these unfortunate tradesmen with an empty stadium and an absolutely crippling debt.
If this is the way that Qatar treats the people who build its country, they are not the world beating people they want us to believe.
They are marching straight back to the stone age, with their eyes firmly closed.
Visit Qatar and take a selfie with the slaves. “How’s that for a holiday slogan”.
Another very effective way to show Qatar and other neighbouring countries that abuse emigrant workers is not to visit them or use their airlines.
You stop these barbarians when you stop doing business with them. The rotten corrupt football world should have pulled the plug on the world cup, knowing well what was going on, but completely brainless, money mad soulless footie players, their entourages, minders and bosses don’t give damn. Governments of all hues desperate for arms sales and industrial contracts, a piece of the petro-chemical El Dorado ensures the slavery is ignored. There’s nothing new here.
Well said. My sentiments exactly!
Well said!
Sounds like some places I know in the United States,but I guess that helped Qatar become the wealthiest nation in the world, slave labor — SHAME – – SHAME –As it says in Proverbs better to be poor & honest, then rich & a cheater i.e. cheating people out of a living wage
Whilst the US was built on slave labor and Indian bones, Qatar’s wealth comes from oil and gas. The widespread slave labor came later.
I lived in Qatar and Saudi Arabia for most of the 1980’s. In Saudi, I had women with law and teaching degrees from the Philippines working as hospital cleaners because they made more money in Saudi than at home. I had some really good Filipino technicians working for about $100 a month.
FIFA, as an international body must stand up for justice and humanity. If it is unable to do that then they are worth nothing. BOYCOTT THE GAMES IN QATAR!
What will it take for Qatar to develop a heart… compassion for their fellow human beings?
SHAME ON QATAR!
Agree with you Javara. But then wouldn’t the FIFA officials have to hand their bribes back?