“Ten years after Qatar won the right to host the 2022 International Football Association (FIFA) World Cup, migrant staff are still facing delays, unpaid wages and wage deductions,” said Michael Page, Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Human Rights Watch.”We have heard of hungry staff due to wage delays, indebted staff who are suffering in Qatar to receive low-paid wages and staff trapped in abusive operating situations for fear of reprisals.
Human Rights Watch interviewed more than 93 migrants running for more than 60 companies or employers and reviewed legal documents and reports for the report.
Qatar has 2 million migrant workers, representing around 95, consistent with the percentage of its total workforce.Many build stadiums, transport, hotels and infrastructure for the upcoming 2022 FIFA World Cup, as they arrive in Qatar in hopes of finding strong jobs.and income, many face wage abuses that further indeude them and imprison them.Works with useless repair mechanisms.
Fifty-nine staff members reported that their salaries had been delayed, withheld or unpaid; nine employees said they weren’t paid because employers said they didn’t have enough clients; 55 reported that they were not paid even though they worked more than 10 hours a day; and thirteen stated that their employers had replaced their initial employment contract with one in favor of employers.Twenty claimed that they had not obtained compulsory benefits for termination of service; and 12 claimed that employers had arbitrarily withheld their wages.
Wage abuses have worsened further since Covid-19.Some employers have used the pandemic as a pretext to withhold wages or refuse to pay unpaid wages to personnel who are fore arrested and forerated by force.Some employees said they might not even comida.se in debt to survive.
A 38-year-old human resources manager in a corporate structure in Qatar, who has a contract to paint the exterior component of a World Cup stadium, said his monthly salary had been delayed by at least 4 months.five times in 2018 and 2019.” I’m affected by overdue payment, I’m behind on credit card payments, rent and school fees for the kids,” she said.”Even now, my salary is delayed for two months…. It’s the same story for all the staff at my point and even for the staff.I can’t believe how the staff is doing it, they can’t borrow from the bank as I can.”
Human Rights Watch found that the kafalah formula was one of the points that facilitated abuse. In 2017, Qatar promised to abolish the kafala formula and, with the advent of some measures, destroyed it, the formula still gives employers runaway force and control over migrant workers. .
Wage abuses are also motivated by misleading recruitment practices in both Qatar and the home countries of staff, forcing them to pay between $700 and $2600 to find employment in Qatar.When staff arrive in Qatar, they are already indebted and trapped in jobs that are less successful than promised.Human Rights Watch found that 72 of the employees surveyed had applied for loans to pay the hiring costs.Business practices, adding the so-called “pay-as-you-go” clause, aggravate wage abuse.allow unpaid subcontractors to withste bills from staff.
“Since August 2019, I’ve been waiting for cash,” said a 34-year-old engineer who gave the impression to the labor court for seven months of unpaid wages and borrowed money from friends in Qatar to send to his family circle.in Nepal.He went to court for the first time a year ago and is still waiting for his payments: “I’m starving because I don’t even have cash for food.How will I repay my loans if I don’t get my salary [through court proceedings]?Sometimes I think suicide is my only option.
Wage abuses are among the most common and devastating violations of migrant workers’ rights in Qatar and the Gulf region, where other versions of the Kafala system exist.To combat wage abuse, the Qatari government created the Wage Protection System (WPS) in 2015, labor dispute resolution committees in 2017, and the Workers Insurance and Support Fund in 2018.
But Human Rights Watch has found that WPS can be more productive if it is described as a wage tracking formula with significant gaps in its ability to control.Employers take ATM cards from staff, which are meant to be used by staff to collect their salaries.Bringing cases of wage abuse to committees can be difficult, costly, time-consuming, and ineffective, and staff are concerned about employer retaliation.And the Workers Insurance and Assistance Fund, designed to make sure staff are paid when corporations can’t pay, have only come into operation before this year.
In October 2019, the government announced primary reforms that would identify a non-discriminatory minimum wage for all migrant staff in Qatar and allow them to replace or leave their jobs without the employer’s consent; however, other elements of the formula that would possibly leave some employers on their staff seem to have to stay.Reforms are expected to be implemented in January 2020.
Human Rights Watch sent the report’s findings and questions to Qatar’s Ministry of Labour and Ministry of the Interior, such as FIFA and Qatar’s Supreme Committee on Delivery and Heritage.We obtained responses from the Supreme Committee, the Government of Qatar Communications Office (GCO) and FIFA.
In response to a request for comment, FIFA wrote: “FIFA and its trusted partner, the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, have a zero-tolerance policy for all bureaucracy of discrimination and wage abuse. Fix our paintings to protect the rights of The staff of the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, FIFA and the SC are aware of the importance of wage protection measures in the country and that is why we have implemented physically powerful systems to save it and mitigate wage abuse at the FIFA World Cup venues. as well as mechanisms for staff to present possible complaints and redress practices for cases in which corporations do not meet our standards. FIFA strongly encourages staff and NGOs wishing to raise their concerns about the FIFA World Cup venues through the SC Staff Social Helpline (see here). This will allow groups in the chart to verify this data and take appropriate action wherever necessary, based on the most productive interest of the respective staff.
FIFA has encouraged non-governmental organizations and to raise concerns about the FIFA World Cup venues through the Supreme Committee’s welfare line.
“There are two years left in Qatar before players throw the world cup’s first football,” Page said.”Time is running out and Qatar will have to show that it will keep its promise to abolish the kafala system, its wage control systems, accelerate its redress mechanisms and take new steps to combat wage abuses.”