Human Rights Watch report slams Qatar’s treatment of South East Asian labourers
New report from watchdog highlights concerns over the welfare and treatment of Indian and other South East Asian workers and steps up calls for greater government involvement
Qatar’s treatment of South East Asian labourers has come under sharp scrutiny from the Human Rights Watch, as a new report about the situation in the Gulf Arab country is about to be released.
Many migrant workers, mainly from India and other South East Asian countries, have alleged that Qatari employers have physically abused and exploited them, the watchdog said.
“Hundreds of thousands of mostly South Asian migrant construction workers in Qatar risk serious exploitation and abuse, sometimes amounting to forced labour,” the body said in a report carried on its website.
“Human Rights Watch urges both the government and the The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) to make sure that their commitments to respect workers’ rights in preparation for the 2022 World Cup are carried out.”
The problems highlighted by the report include exorbitant recruitment fees, which often take years for workers to pay off. When coupled with Qatar’s restrictive employer sponsorship system and the routine confiscation of employee passports, employers in the country have inordinate control over their workers, the report explained.
“Workers’ high debts and the restrictions they face if they want to change employers often leave them to accept jobs or working conditions they did not agree to in their home countries, or to continue work under conditions of abuse,” HRW said.
The body added that workers are currently reluctant to lodge their complaints officially due to the obstacles they face, thereby allowing the abuse to continue undetected.
However, the mounting accusations have led to Indian politicians taking up the case and push for a comprehensive reform to Indian laws, so as to protect migrant workers, an Al Jazeera news report said.
P T Kunhimohammed, a former local politician from Kerala, told the Qatar based news channel that there needed to be an overhaul of the Migration Act to ensure the protection of construction workers in the Middle East.
Furthermore, the Indian government has continued to raise its concerns with Qatar’s leadership over the issues of physical abuse and the non-payment of salaries.
