Amnesty says Qatar still has a long way to go

Despite praise for being open and accessible, Amnesty International said that Qatar still had a long way to go.
The rampant abuse of migrant workers is reaching crisis proportions in Qatar and requires urgent action, a senior Amnesty
International official has said, hours before the release of a report detailing the abysmal living and working conditions of many of the
countrys poorest residents.
Speaking at a press conference in Doha on Sunday, Amnestys secretary general Salil Shetty said withheld passports, unpaid wages and
poor worksite safety were among the top concerns detailed in the new report, which journalists were only permitted to publish after midnight
on Sunday.
The Dark Side of Migration, a 169-page document that draws on interviews with more than 200 male construction workers in Qatar and 14
meetings with government officials, echoes many of the same concerns as previous reports from rights groups. But it also works to debunk
the simple narrative of Qatari nationals taking advantage of foreigners.
Instead, the report asserts that exploitation is happening because companies can get away with it.
Namely, serious flaws in local laws, a permissive environment and lax enforcement of existing policies governing the recruitment and
employment of migrant workers are enabling widespread abuse of construction workers by both Qatari and foreign business owners, the
report said.
In his opening remarks, Shetty said Qatar has been much more open and accessible to Amnesty than some of its Gulf neighbours, and
praised government officials for acknowledging that problems exist and taking steps to address the issues.
Nobody (in the government) was denying that there was a problem, he said.
But he added: While theyve come a distance, there is still a long way to go.

Gathering information
Amnesty researchers spent five and a half weeks in Qatar over two visits preparing their report. They visited 20 labor camps and said they
observed breaches of Qatari standards in each one, including observing 15 men sharing a bedroom, missing or non-functioning air
conditioning, overflowing sewage as well as a lack of power and running water.
Enabling these abuses, Amnesty said, is Qatars sponsorship systems that creates an excessively unequal power relationship. When
combined with ineffective enforcement of worker protection, the sponsorship law means that people can be compelled to work under
exploitative conditions, when they would otherwise be able to resign and get a new job or leave the country.
The report also noted that while researchers encountered many workers in severe psychological distress, including several who expressed
suicidal thoughts, they also spoke to others who were broadly satisfied with their working conditions.
Amnestys recommendations mirror those made by other human rights and labor activists in the past few years primarily, calling on Qatar
to scrap its restrictive sponsorship (kafala) system and do away with rules that require expats to obtain their employers permission to
change jobs or leave the country.
There is no reason, in our view, why (a blanket exit permit system) should continue, Shetty said.
Amnesty researcher James Lynch added that a travel ban system is already in place to prevent those with pending court cases from leaving
the country.
However, representatives of Qatars business community have argued that the current rules are needed to prevent hardships to companies
caused by the sudden and unannounced departure of key employees.

The upcoming 2022 World Cup which is expected to require 1.5 million additional workers and billions of dollars worth of new construction
projects has many international news outlets scrutinizing Qatars human rights record. Amnesty is capitalizing on that media spotlight and
encouraging Qatari officials to see that attention as an opportunity to reform a system that everyone acknowledges needs reforming, Shetty
said.

Whats new
Amnestys report contains a wealth of highly detailed anecdotes of abuse that build upon past publications by the United Nations,
international trade union BWI and the Guardian newspaper, as well as Human Rights Watch.
But the report also contains a lot of fresh information, including

More details about a 2013 study by Hamad Hospital that found more than 1,000 workers are injured annually after falling from
heights at work sites. The mortality rate is significant and 10 percent of victims were disabled after the incident. The Hamad
Hospital report is quoted as saying, There were a high number of injuries affecting head and spine, and a comparatively low
number of injuries to the lower extremities. This suggests that injured workers are falling mainly on their heads. The
implementation of helmets or other protective headgear and safety barriers or restraint devices for construction workers at risk of
falling may lead to significant reduction of injuries.

The Hamad Hospital study also noted that the rate of fatal falls in the construction industry in the United Kingdom was 3.4 per 100,000
workers in 2007-08. During a similar time period in Qatar, it was 8.44 per 100,000 workers.

Allegations from former employees of Krantz Engineering, a subcontractor hired by SEG Qatar to work on the Ras Laffan
Emergency and Safety College for Qatar Petroleum, that they were forced to sign papers falsely stating that they had received
their salaries before the company returned their passports. The workers told Amnesty they were also forced to sign and add a
thumbprint to two blank letterheads, something Indian embassy officials called blackmail in a strongly worded letter to Krantz.

This followed long delays in paying wages as well as a failure to issue or renew expired residence permits, meaning these workers could not
leave Qatar until large fines for living here illegally were paid to the Ministry of Interior. Krantz officials who could not immediately be
reached for comment by Doha News told Amnesty researchers that the firm encountered financial problems when SEG did not pay the
subcontractor.

A construction company called PCSI Specialties Qatar, which has been subcontracted by Hyundai Engineering and Construction
Co. to work on the Hamad Medical City project, and by OHL Construction and Contrack for Qatar Foundations Sidra Medical and
Research Center failed to arrange for residence permits to be issued and renewed for dozens of employees, workers say.
Amnesty researchers say a PCSI general manager told them that the issue stemmed from cash-flow problems and acknowledged
that one or two of its workers had been arrested and deported for not carrying permits.

Amnesty officials also visited a PCSI labor camp, where workers told them that the air conditioners had been broken for 10 months.
Furthermore, the accommodations were also being used to house old paints and waste materials, with discarded electrical cables and
what appeared to be spilled oil left in the corridors.

Dozens of employees at Indian Trading and Contracting Group, as well as Bestway Qatar and Noor al Huda Trading and
Contracting, two firms contracted to supply construction workers, said they performed four months of unpaid work on an Al
Sadd tower (the exact location of which they could not recall) between July and December 2012. They also say they did not
collect any wages for several months afterwards when they were stranded in Qatar, unable to work or leave.

Amnesty said it saw documents to support the mens claims and spoke to ITCs managing director, who said the company was experiencing
financial difficulties because of a payment dispute with a client. Amnesty also visited their labor camp on Street 38 in Dohas Industrial Area.
There was no power or running water, and sewage leaking from the camps septic tank flowed down the street into a stagnant pool.
During Sundays press conference, Amnesty officials conceded that the claims of financial difficulties on the part of subcontractors could be
true and constrain their ability to pay workers and utility bills.

Nevertheless, Lynch said he found the attitudes of company officials shocking and said many treated labor laws as an optional set of
guidelines.
Anecdotally, Amnesty researchers documented one meeting with the manager of a subcontracting company in which they referenced
correspondence from the companys mainly Nepalese employees. The manager, apparently believing that no one from Amnesty spoke
Arabic, phoned one of his colleagues and asked him to Bring me the letter from the animals.
Amnesty officials say it is up the primary contractors to include, monitor and enforce human rights provisions in their agreements with
subcontractors.
An unnamed source from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told Qatar News Agency that Qatar would be investigating the claims in Amnestys
report, as part of an independent review launched last month following the Guardian report about Nepali workers. The source also said, The
state of Qatar attaches great importance to promoting and protecting human rights within the state by acting to consolidate these rights in its
legislations and laws as well as establishing the appropriate institutions for the protection and promotion of these rights, reiterating that it is
doing its utmost in this respect.
Amnesty expects to release another report, focused on domestic workers in Qatar, sometime next year.
@Doha News

Qatar reacts to worker abuse claims

Official says the World Cup will be a catalyst for change in the country

Doha: Qatar sought to ease controversy over conditions for workers building venues for the 2022 World Cup as it unveiled
the first stadium design for the tournament, saying a high-level review of labour standards in the Gulf state showed the
tournament was a catalyst for change.

The cabinet is reviewing proposals to modify the so-called kafala sponsorship system. Under this, workers are forbidden
from leaving an employer without its permission. It is also considering modifying restrictions on exit permits, said Hassan Al
Thawadi, secretary-general of the Qatar 2022 supreme committee, in an interview following the launch of the stadium
design.

The issue of workers rights, a source of criticism for many years, is coming under renewed scrutiny as questions over the
treatment of labourers threatens to undermine the already sparse global goodwill towards Qatars hosting of the tournament.

Shaikh Hamad Bin Jasem Al Thani, a former prime minister, as long ago as 2007 likened the kafala system to modern-day
slavery.

There is progress on the ground, and a will to move forward, said Al Thawadi. Efforts were already paying dividends, he
said, pointing to the setting up of specific standards for contractors used to build the World Cup stadiums and related
infrastructure. We are working hard to reform these systems to create a sustainable system for the long term, he said.

The continuing plight of a French footballer denied an exit visa by his sponsor is a vivid example of the system that rights
groups say gives employers the whip hand over staff. Other expatriates have also found themselves trapped in Qatar after
facing disputes with employers.

Amnesty International said in a report released on Sunday that Qatars construction sector was rife with abuse and called
for an overhaul of the kafala system. The supreme committee said it valued Amnestys contribution, saying it was taking
steps to ensure workers dignity, health, safety and security.

Fear of raised costs

Qatari business groups have warned about changes to labour legislation, which they fear will raise costs, but Al Thawadi
said the private sector was open to change.

The Qatar 2022 supreme committee at the weekend unveiled plans for the first of the World Cup stadiums, in Al Wakrah, a
coastal town 15km south of the capital. The contract for the arena will be tendered next year, with a 2018 delivery date.

The stadium is designed by Iraqi-born and London-based architect Zaha Hadid. Internally and externally it reinterprets a Gulf
dhow, reflecting the seafaring spirit of this former pearling town.

The upper structure evokes a sail with arched timber trusses, inspired by a dhows hull, spanning the stadium to create a
column-free structure with unobstructed views from all seats.

While Fifa is looking into the logistics of moving the tournament to winter, Qatar remains committed to being able to deliver a
tournament in its fiercely hot summer.

The stadium uses an exoskeleton to shield the ground-level glazing from sunlight. Temperature at pitch level will be 26
degrees C, with shaded stands cooled to 28 degrees. Public areas surrounding the stadium will be cooled to 32 degrees.

This will deliver the right temperatures for spectators for a summer tournament, said Jim Heverin, lead architect.

The steering committee, which is working with other state entities to co-ordinate plans, hopes to encourage the private
sector to play a central role in the development.

Dohas large new airport, years behind schedule, has raised fears about Qatars ability to oversee the complex infrastructure
needed to host the tournament.

However, Al Thawadi said the government would use its experience from the airport to organise the infrastructure
programme for the World Cup more efficiently. Lessons have been learned, he said.

Head of Qatar's 2022 Supreme Committee says

charter will protect workers
By: Michael Fahy
The head of Qatar's 2022 Supreme Committee responded to questions about the recent spate of deaths of
expat workers in the country by re-iterating its commitment to a workers' charter.
When asked about workers' deaths that had taken place in the country, secretary-general Hassan Al Thawadi said:
"For us, any number above zero is unacceptable. We're working towards ensuring that stays that way."
He said the Supreme Committee had provided "very clear standards that all of our contractors have to comply with".
"There's mechanisms provided within these to ensure that they maintain the highest degree of safety and security,
providing health and dignity of every person working on any of the projects within 2022."
Qatar has come under fire from international labour organisations following a revelation by a Nepalese diplomatic
official that 32 Nepalese workers died in the country in the month of July alone - 21 of these where construction
workers suffering cardivascular incidents, falls or other on-site incidents, while the other 11 died in traffic accidents.
Labour organisations have also criticised Qatar's Kafala visa sponsorship system, with the International Trade Union
Federation (ITUC) general secretary Sharan Burrow stating that under local laws employers have "near total control"
over workers, including whether they can change jobs or leave the country.
When asked if its new charter meant Qatar's 2022 Supreme Committee would look to change the system. Al Thawadi
said the Supreme Committee's charter "is available to the public and refers to ensuring the safety, security and the
dignity of every person working within the 2022 project".
"It's a continuation of the initiatives and the systems of the Qatari Government. That's as far as I can say towards
that," he concluded.
Tenders for Qatar's World Cup stadium projects will start to be floated from Q1 next year.

No commitment to repeal Kafala, exit permit systems

Amnesty International (AI) has said it has time and again raised the issue of the sponsorship (Kafala) and exit permit
systems, but no commitment to repeal these have been given to them by the Qatari authorities till date.
Secretary-general Salil Shetty said while each Gulf country has its own version of the sponsorship system, Qatar is
the only country other than Saudi Arabia that requires workers to obtain exit permits before they go home.
The Amnesty officials called for repeal of the current sponsorship laws.
Under the title, The Sponsorship System: A Recipe For Exploitation And Forced Labour, the amnesty report

launched yesterday noted that in May 2012, the Labour Ministry Undersecretary told a Qatari newspaper that there
was an intention to cancel the sponsor system and replace it with a contract between the worker and the employer.
Amnesty International understood from conversations with officials, including the Director of the Search and Followup Department at the Ministry of Interior in October 2012, that this referred to a proposal to replace the current
system with standard contracts for each worker, which would last for between one and three years; when these
contracts expired, workers would be allowed to find work with a new employer if they wished.
The report further said that in October 2012, the Qatari government announced the formation of a panel to review the
sponsorship law. However, when AI requested for information on the progress of the panels work in July 2013, the
Qatari authorities allegedly did not provide any further information in their October 2013 response.
Several government officials have told Amnesty International the purpose of the sponsorship system is to ensure a
balance between the rights of the worker and the rights of the employer, it says. However, instead, the system
creates an excessively unequal power relationship, in which workers have limited and ineffective avenues open to
them if they are being exploited, it has been observed.
It said if workers arrived in Qatar to find that they have been deceived about the terms and conditions of their work
during the recruitment process, or are subjected to abusive working or living conditions by their employer, the
question of whether or not they can change jobs depends on their employer the very person responsible for their
abuse.
In contrast, sponsors have the power to prevent their workers from moving jobs, can block workers from leaving the
country without needing to provide any justification and have the right to terminate a workers employment and have
his or her residency permit cancelled by the authorities. If the expatriate declines to leave the state, the employer is
obliged to report the worker to the authorities for deportation.

Qatar urged to stamp out labour abuse

Amnesty International lauds steps taken by Gulf Arab country to address issue but says
exploitation is rife.
Qatar's construction sector is rife with abuse, Amnesty International, the international rights
organisation, has said in a report, and has urged the Gulf Arab country to enforce existing labour
protections flouted by many employers.
The 169-page report, The Dark Side of Migration: Spotlight on Qatar's Construction Sector Ahead of
the World Cup, released on Sunday in Qatar's capital, Doha, said workers were subjected to nonpayment of wages and harsh working conditions.
The report, based on interviews with workers, employers and government officials, documents the
scale of exploitation of migrant workers as construction for the 2022 FIFA World Cup begins.

Salil Shetty, secretary-general of Amnesty International, called on FIFA to act more urgently in
pressing Qatar over the issue.
"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," he said in
Doha on Sunday night.
"This is a crisis situation."
'Important steps taken'
The report's release comes one week after Francois Crepeau, UN Special Rapporteur on the Human
Rights of Migrants, called called for more labour reforms in Qatar.
Shetty said Qatar's government had taken important steps to address the issues of migrant workers
and human rights in general, and it was likely that the labour minister would do something about the
problem.
However, Shetty said that more needed to be done, including reforming the "kafala" sponsorship
system, which binds workers to their employers, and ending the exit-permit system, where migrant
workers must seek permission from employers to leave the country.
Qatar's state cabinet has appointed a committee to examine the issue.
Shetty said senior Qatari officials, including the prime minister and labour minister, were unable to
say whether they were going to abolish exit visas, in the immediate sense.
"I think they fully recognise that there is a problem which they have to address," he said.
"I would say that they made a commitment."
Workers 'protected'
Khalid bin Jassim Al Thani, the director of the Human Rights Department in Qatar, said in a letter to
Amnesty International, published as part of the report, that the law with regard to exit permits
protected workers from "bad sponsors".
"The employee can travel without permission if the objection of the sponsor was unreasonable," he
wrote.
Shetty welcomed a new initiative, involving the electronic checking of contracts.

The Amnesty International research team met dozens of construction workers who have been
prevented from leaving the country for many months by their employers, leaving them trapped in the
country.
James Lynch, one of the researchers, said there were now about 150 labour inspectors, but it was
important that rogue employers were prosecuted.
He said he saw workers living in a camp with no running water or electricity for several weeks and
had worked long hours, but were unpaid for about eight months.
"Their camp was full of rubbish," he said.
"The septic tank had overflowed, so there was streaming sewerage flowing out into the street."
Lynch said the company confiscated all of the men's passports.
"The company said if you want to go home, you have to sign this document which says you have
received all of your salaries," he said.
"We actually watched a group of them sign those at the Ministry of Justice and they all got plane
tickets in return, and I think the sheer injustice of that was quite shocking."
He alleged passport confiscation was "rife".

Guest
a day ago

o
o
o

Treat them well and give them a good salary.

12

Reply

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Zionism is anti-HUMANITY
a day ago

o
o

Qatar and all the other Arab petro-pimps need to learn basic humanity and human dignity. They
act like the Zionists in their treatment of Asian and African labor. These lazy fat pimps treat their
fellow Muslims from Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Egypt, Yemen and Somalia like dirt
and abuse them worse than animals. These British installed Wahabbi desert Bedouin corrupt
families are Islam's worst enemies and ruining the image of already battered Islam. These Arabs
are just inhuman and lack even basic civility.

o
o

25 4

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o
Al-shami Zionism is anti-HUMANITY
a day ago

Arabism is anti-HUMANITY

Reply

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watani Al-shami
19 hours ago

Arab treats othetr nationalities in their country like insects, but when one of their scums are
captured destroying , plotting or doing rodent activities in thousands of kilometers away from
their homeland they become mad and starts to talk of human rights, racism, liberty...etc. they are
such Hippocrates

Reply

Share

o
anon Zionism is anti-HUMANITY
18 hours ago

I usually don't agree with your Muslim Bashing. But this is quite true. The time of ignorance is
upon us. These people are returning to their roots. But there are some good among them. There
were many good among them.

Reply

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lapazjim
21 hours ago

o
o

Qatar is among many of the wealthy Middle Eastern nations in believing human life of so called
Infadels are worthless.They are looking to build their stadiums for they world cup and found a
form of cheap labor.Cheap because they do not pay them,yet force them to work under unsafe
conditions and do not care or compensate them for severe injuries.
What did the FIFA World Cup people think would happen? Their reaction to this should be to
threaten to pull the games out of QATAR for their failures.Tell Qatar meet safety standards and
pay the people or else they will use a previously existing site for games.
Remember this is an Arab country with no regards for human life??

Reply

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Al-shami
a day ago

o
o
belen fernanandes? where are you?

o
o

Reply

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watani
19 hours ago

o
They must cancel the olympic games in qatar and shouldn't let the olympics in any arab country.
they are build by migrant workers and they sleep in dozens in garages and tents while working
for less than 5 dollors a day! shame on qataris shame on emaratis and shame on all fetish ,
arrogant and obsessed with money and material a-rabs.

"Alarming exploitation" of workers in Qatar:

Amnesty
(Reuters) - Qatar's construction industry is rife with abuse of migrant workers who are "treated like cattle"
and live in squalid accommodation, Amnesty International said on Sunday, calling on world soccer's
governing body to help address the situation.
Qatar will host the 2022 World Cup, and the human rights organization asked FIFA to work with the
Qatari authorities to stamp out abuses of workers who mainly come from South Asia.
"Our findings indicate an alarming level of exploitation in the construction sector in Qatar," said Amnesty
International's secretary-general, Salil Shetty.

"FIFA has a duty to send a strong public message that it will not tolerate human rights abuses on
construction projects related to the World Cup," he said.
"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.
"Construction companies and the Qatari authorities alike are failing migrant workers. Employers in Qatar
have displayed an appalling disregard for the basic human rights of migrant workers," Shetty said.
An unnamed source at Qatar's foreign ministry told the state news agency QNA that the Gulf state
"attaches great importance to the promotion and protection of human rights".
The source said the government had on October 3 appointed the international law firm DLA Piper to
conduct an independent and comprehensive review of the issue of migrant worker abuse.
He said DLA Piper had been asked to include Amnesty's report in its review and investigate its findings.
There was no mention of when the law company's investigation would be complete.
Britain's Guardian newspaper and the International Trade Union Confederation have also delivered
scathing reports on the treatment of migrant workers in Qatar.
The London-based group said it had interviewed about 210 migrant workers in the construction industry
during two visits to Qatar in October 2012 and March 2013.
It also held meetings with 22 companies involved in construction projects and met government
representatives on more than a dozen occasions. The report said abuses included "non-payment of wages,
harsh and dangerous working conditions and shocking standards of accommodation".
CONSTRUCTION WORKERS
Earlier this month a U.N. official called on Qatar to abolish the kafala, or sponsorship system, used by
many Gulf Arab states, under which employees cannot change jobs or leave the country without the
permission of their sponsors.
Many sponsors, often labor supply firms or wealthy Qataris who provide workers to businesses for profit,
confiscate the passports of guest workers for the duration of their contracts.
Shetty said Qatar had not promised to scrap kafala. "We have met with the prime minister, labor minister
and other officials and they all have not denied that there is a problem but they haven't made any
commitment and this is what we need," he said.
However, the ministry had taken a positive step last week by recruiting more labor inspectors, Shetty said.

Amnesty said its researchers had met dozens of construction workers who had been prevented from
leaving the country for many months by their employers.
In one case, Nepalese workers employed by a company delivering critical supplies to a construction
project associated with FIFA's planned headquarters for the World Cup said they were "treated like
cattle", the report said.
They complained they were working up to 12 hours per day and seven days a week even during Qatar's
summer heat.
James Lynch, Amnesty's researcher on Gulf migrants' rights, told a news conference in Doha that a
worker would have to pay 600 riyals ($165) to pursue a grievance through local courts, a fee many could
not afford.
Researchers also found migrant workers living in squalid, overcrowded accommodation with no airconditioning, exposed to overflowing sewage and uncovered septic tanks.
"Researchers witnessed 11 men signing papers in front of government officials falsely confirming that they
had received their wages, in order to get their passports back to leave Qatar," Amnesty said.
FIFA said respect for human rights was part of all of its activities. "It is FIFA's aim that the host countries
of our flagship event ensure healthy, safe and dignified working conditions for all - nationals and
foreigners, including construction workers - involved in the preparation of the event," it said in a
statement.
(Reporting by Brian Homewood in Berne and Amena Bakr in Doha; Editing by Ed Osmond, William
Maclean and Alistair Lyon)