BBC.CO.UK
At a Glance
Migrant workers in Qatar
- There are some 1.35 million foreign nationals working in Qatar.
- Migrant workers now make up some 94 per cent of the total workforce in the country.
- 90% had their passports held by their employers
- 56% did not have a government health card, essential to access public hospitals
- 21% “sometimes, rarely or never” received their salary on time
- 20% got a different salary than had been promised
- 15% worked in a different job to the one promised
Source: Survey of 1,189 low-income workers in Qatar,carried out in 2012 by a study funded by the Qatar National Research Fund.
A new report by Amnesty International finds Qatar’s construction sector rife with abuse, with workers employed on multi-million dollar projects suffering serious exploitation.
As construction is set to begin on the FIFA World Cup 2022 stadiums, the report, The Dark Side of Migration: Spotlight on Qatar’s construction sector ahead of the World Cup, unpicks complex contractual chains and 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,” said Salil Shetty, Secretary General of Amnesty International.
“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. Many are taking advantage of a permissive environment and lax enforcement of labour protections to exploit construction workers.”
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Related articles
- Amnesty International report yet another reminder that Qatar can be horrible, horrible place (prosoccertalk.nbcsports.com)
- ‘Alarming exploitation’ of workers in Qatar: Amnesty (sports.yahoo.com)
- Amnesty concerned about Qatar workers ahead of WC (kansascity.com)
The Islamic Workplace 
Posted on November 17, 2013
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