Doha, Qatar – Angeline came to Qatar in 2018 hoping to support her 3 children, two brothers and her mother in the Philippines.
It was her first assignment and she sought to earn enough money to be able to buy space for her family.
From now on, Angeline struggles and hopes her contract ends so she can return home.
“We have not been paid since April 1 because we have not worked since [due to the coronavirus pandemic],” he told Al Jazeera, adding that his employers had paid a one-time allowance. of two hundred Qatari rials ($ 55) in April.
“They said it was an advance of money and that it would be deducted from the salary once they paid us. “
The cleaning company Angeline works for, like thousands of other corporations in Qatar, has suffered the brunt of government restrictions on coronaviruses.
In June, the Qatari government told Al Jazeera that it had launched a 75 billion riyal ($ 20. 6 billion) stimulus package to keep businesses running and maintain jobs, and to employ other people. in “financial difficulties in paying wages and rent. “
But Angeline says her employers have refused to hire finance staff and even confiscated passports and ATM cards; the latter action is illegal under Qatari law.
“In May, they told us they would give us 400 [riyals, or $ 110] if we signed a new contract. Those who refused won a deductible advance of two hundred [riyals]. We still had no selection to accept. Otherwise we would have starved. “
Qatar’s appeal to migrant personnel and its human rights record has been a highlight since it was given the role of host for the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
Under Qatar’s “kafala” (Arabic word for sponsorship) system, migrant staff will have to download their employer’s permit – a certificate of no objection (NOC) – before converting jobs, a law that, according to activists from human rights, links their presence in the country to their employers and can lead to abuse and exploitation.
The Government Communications Office (GCO) told Al Jazeera: “Qatar has made great progress on hard work reforms and continues to work with NGOs, adding to the International Labor Organization, that these reforms are powerful and effective. “
However, a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report, released Monday, said that “the country’s efforts for the right of migrant personnel to accurate and timely wages have been largely unsuccessful. “
“Despite a handful of reforms in recent years, withheld and unpaid wages, like other wage abuses, are persistent and prevalent in at least 60 employers and companies in Qatar,” the report adds.
HRW said most of the migrants it spoke to for the report experienced wage delays, non-payment of contributions and severance pay. Some have said that “employers have arbitrarily deducted their wages. “
In response, the GCO said: “Almost everyone who comes to Qatar for an assignment does not delight in any form of wage abuse. There are some remote cases where staff face this problem. “
In June, Al Jazeera published a report on how the coronavirus shutdown affected migrant staff in Qatar. He spoke to a large number of staff hired through personal corporations in the country and found that most were in a “no job, no pay” situation, suffering despite the government’s stimulus package.
Al Jazeera spoke to many affected migrant workers, adding driving instructors, lounge staff, baristas, chefs, personal taxi drivers, small business owners, and hotel and hotel staff. Home. Most of them have not won any of their employers and are too scared to complain.
“The [GCO] is not consistent with the findings that we have, but also with the almost periodic media reports that we see of a lot of migrant staff stranded after their employers did not pay them for months,” he told Al Jazeera. HRW Gulf investigator Hiba Zayadin.
“This is a widespread problem, not only in Qatar but throughout the Gulf. It is vitally important that our report does not say or mean to imply that all migrant personnel in Qatar suffer from wage abuse. Instead, it seeks to show that they paint in a context that allows for widespread wage abuse and does not adequately address them when they occur. “
Al Jazeera has learned that despite the lifting of many restrictions imposed via coronaviruses as a component of Qatar’s four-phase plan to reopen the country and the economy, various personal sponsors still do not pay staff, they ‘make them work’ .
“I paint six hours a day all week, but they pay me a little over seven rials [$ 1. 9] an hour,” he told Al Jazeera at another cleaning company. “Because up to now the business still doesn’t work at all, they said they couldn’t pay us what the contract says.
“My last salary was paid in March. Since then the corporation has given us nothing, not even a bachelor riyal. We can only do it with personal donations of rice and food. “
Some staff members said they had been paid since January. Others get a fraction of their salary.
Workers also told Al Jazeera that some employers move wages to workers’ bank accounts, but force workers to hand over bank cards before taking the amount.
GCO claims that wage abuses are experienced in remote instances of rights organizations.
“This answer was not only inaccurate, but in fact it was disrespectful and distant from what the staff is going through. Denying this, especially in those times when task cuts and pay cuts are the norm, was a mistake,” said. Vani Saraswathi, Migrant-Rights. Org’s assignment manager, told Al Jazeera.
“The GCO only had to go through the court cases presented before the embassies and the MADLSA [Ministry of Labor] to realize that they are not remote instances and that they are so widespread that they number in the tens of thousands. If they don’t recognize the problem, how are they going to fix it? “
The GCO said corporations that had ceased their government orders earlier this year had been ordered to pay “a base salary and allowances. “
He added that the recommendations of the HRW report “are already being implemented or in the implementation procedure,” adding legislation that eliminates the ACN requirement and the arrival of ‘a minimum wage’.
“Qatar’s hard work program protects all staff at all stages of their employment cycle,” he said.
But HRW’s Zayadin said that while “Qatar has made many promises to migrant staff in recent years and has introduced reforms,” not enough were passed.
“Time and again, migrant staff in Qatar have been disappointed that commercialized reforms have done little for their realities in the country,” he added.
If Qatar really needs those reforms to have an effect on the floor and replace the lives of those they seek to attack, it will have to abolish kafalah in its entirety, allow staff to join unions, and introduce reforms that target destructive businesses. . practices “.
Workers are also losing confidence in the formula due to barriers to justice in Qatar, Saraswathi said, echoing concern among migrant staff about the repercussions if they complain.
He added that for workers, pronouncing reforms or a report meant little.
The Qatari government has said it encourages filing court cases with the Ministry of Labor by phone, text message or email.
In June, the GCO said: “More than 12,000 inspections have been carried out at workplaces and places of accommodation to verify that corporations are applying all the precautionary measures opposed to COVID-19. There is no excuse for a company to violate Qatar’s hard work laws, wages. “
For Angéline, who is afraid to speak, there is one thing in mind.
“My circle of relatives is suffering to survive. They had to sell things in the space to buy food. Even here it is very complicated for me and my colleagues, however, we are very afraid of the employer because we have heard stories about the blacklist and deportation in the past.
“What he considers me is leaving. “
Staff calls have been replaced by identities. None of the staff members tried to call his company for fear of retaliation, but some reported it to the Qatari Ministry of Labor.