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 FIFA World Cup 2022: Qatar Slammed for Exploitation Ahead of the Stadium Construction– Amnesty International Reports
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Posted on 11-18-13 6:59 AM     Reply [Subscribe]
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FIFA World Cup 2022: Qatar Slammed for Exploitation Ahead of the Stadium Construction– Amnesty International ReportsRate this Story

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By Athena Yenko | November 18, 2013 5:50 PM EST

The construction for the stadium of the FIFA World Cup 2022 is set to begin, but Amnesty International slammed Qatar for its alleged exploitation of migrant workers.


In its recent report titled, The Dark Side of Migration: Spotlight on Qatar's construction sector ahead of the World Cup, Amnesty International slammed Qatar for alleged forced labour of migrant workers contracted for the FIFA World Cup 2022 stadium.

"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," stated 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 basichuman rights of migrant workers. Many are taking advantage of a permissive environment and lax enforcement of labour protections to exploit construction workers."

"Companies must ensure that migrant workers employed on construction projects linked to their operations are not being abused. They should be proactive and not just take action when abuses are drawn to their attention. Turning a blind eye to any form of exploitation is unforgivable, particularly when it is destroying people's lives and livelihoods," said Mr Shetty.

"The world's spotlight will continue to shine on Qatar in the run-up to the 2022 World Cup offering the government a unique chance to demonstrate on a global stage that they are serious about their commitment to human rights and can act as a role model to the rest of the region," he added.

The report from Amnesty International was based on actual interviews with migrant workers, employers and government officials.

The scale of abuse:

  • workers arriving in Qatar to find that the terms and conditions of their work are different to those they had been promised during the recruitment process - including salaries being lower than promised;
  • workers having their pay withheld for months, or not being paid at all;
  • employers leaving workers "undocumented" and therefore at risk of being detained by the authorities;
  • migrant workers having their passports confiscated and being prevented from leaving the country by their employers;
  • workers being made to work excessive (sometimes extreme) hours and employers failing to protect workers' health and safety adequately; and
  • workers being housed in squalid accommodation.

Amnesty International was able to talk with employees for a company contracted to deliver construction supplies for the FIFA World Cup 2022 headquarters. These employees testified that they suffer labour abuses as they were made to work like cattle. They were forced to work 12 hours a day and seven days a week despite Qatar's hellish hot summer months. Worse, they could not just leave work and go back home. Believing the promise of a stable income in Qatar, they owed money back home to finance their Qatar job applications.

"Please tell me - is there any way to get out of here? ... We are going totally mad," one Nepalese construction worker told Amnesty International. He was unpaid for seven months and was prevented from leaving Qatar.

As for those who took courage to leave Qatar, they were blackmailed by their employees to sign contracts falsely claiming that they were paid in accordance with legal agreement. Unless they sign the papers, their passport will not be given back to them.

Poor working condition in construction sites also compelled migrant workers to work without safety gears, including helmets. A representative from an unnamed Doha hospital revealed that in 2012, there were more than 1,000 migrant workers admitted for head trauma for falling from height at work. Ten per cent of these workers ended being disabled.

In view of the said report, Amnesty International is calling Qatari authorities and FIFA World Cup organisers to look into the issue and immediately put a stop to the abuse.

"Our findings indicate an alarming level of exploitation in the construction sector in Qatar. 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," said Mr Shetty.

"Qatar is recruiting migrant workers at a remarkable rate to support its construction boom, with the population increasing at 20 people an hour. Many migrants arrive in Qatar full of hopes, only to have these crushed soon after they arrive. There's no time to delay - the government must act now to end this abuse.

"Unless critical, far-reaching steps are taken immediately, hundreds of thousands of migrant workers who will be recruited in the coming years to deliver Qatar's vision face a high risk of being abused."

To contact the editor, e-mail: editor@ibtimes.com


 
Posted on 11-18-13 9:18 AM     [Snapshot: 103]     Reply [Subscribe]
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Qatar 2022 World Cup: built by forced labor

Migrant workers make up 90% of Qatar's workforce. A new Amnesty report chronicles the many abuses they face
FIFA World Cup trophy
The FIFA World Cup trophy. Photograph: Bernd Weissbrod/EPA

When I was 10 and living in Libya, I would often visit my father at the Indian Embassy, where he was serving as a diplomat, and find his office packed with workers desperately seeking repatriation back home.

These men were lured to Libya from villages in India with promises of good paying jobs in the oil fields. When they got there, usually after taking on much debt to finance the trip, they were forced to work under brutal conditions at a lower wage than they were promised. Other than their embassy, they had no local authorities to turn to for grievance.

Three decades later, a similar scenario is playing out in Qatar, where migrant workers are facing a myriad of abuses at the hands of their employers, a problem that has been brought into stark relief by preparations for the FIFA World Cup in 2022. In our new report, "The Dark Side of Migration: Spotlight on Qatar's Construction Sector Ahead of the World Cup", Amnesty International has uncovered many cases where these abuses amount to forced labor or human trafficking. Migrant workers currently make up over 90% of the total workforce in Qatar and most of them come from countries in Asia and the Middle East including Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Egypt, Sri Lanka and my home country of India.

In Libya back then, Indian workers were being abused in the oil fields that produced petroleum for export. Today in Qatar, workers' rights are violated in industries tied to infrastructure development, risks that will only increase as the country invests heavily in construction projects in advance of the soccer championship.

The main issues that workers say they face are deception in recruitment about types of work, wages and conditions, restrictions on their mobility when they arrive, not getting paid for work they perform, and unsafe conditions on the work sites. A unifying element is that these workers all say they don't have access to any government institution to appeal to that would swiftly investigate claims and provide resolution. Their experiences of fraud, force or coercion contain elements of human trafficking as defined under international law and are grave abuses of human rights.

A Qatari law that allows for companies to sponsor workers, and thus bring them to the country, also makes it extremely difficult for workers to change jobs or return home without permission from the sponsor. Amnesty International research documented cases of dozens of construction workers who tried to leave the country but were prevented from doing so by their employers. These employers exercised authority to restrict workers' freedom of movement, many illegally confiscating their employees passports and refusing to return them when workers expressed a desire to leave. These actions only add to a worker's sense that his employer has much authority over him with few options available to leave and seek justice.

Furthermore, in the rush to prepare for the World Cup, Qatar's many construction projects are ambitious, massive operations. There are myriad dangers to workers, both from accidents and from working in a very hot climate. As the director of the Hamad Hospital trauma unit in Doha told Amnesty researchers:

Companies should take more interest in the safety of their workers. The authorities must be strict on rules and regulations to force these companies to take all safety measures and make itobligatory at all construction sites.

These risks can be mitigated if the Qatari authorities press employers to adequately protect health and safety, and by creating mechanisms for workers to safely file complaints.

The Qatari government has the ability to rectify such emerging risks to workers' human rights. Similarly, in a few months, the Winter Olympics will be held in Sochi, Russia, among increasing concerns about the deteriorating human rights situation there. Despite global public outcries and the courageous actions of many within Russia who continue to demand respect for human rights, Russian authorities continue to dampen peaceful protest and resist implementing reforms.

Well ahead of the 2022 World Cup, Qatar has an opportunity to address human rights risks by instilling laws, systems and practices to protect migrant workers and the many others who will be coming seeking fair work during the related construction boom. Political will is needed now to provide confidence to global visitors to Qatar that the facilities they will enjoy were not produced at the expense of someone's human rights. Visitors and investors must press the Qatari authorities on this.

The time to do so is now.


 
Posted on 11-18-13 12:10 PM     [Snapshot: 215]     Reply [Subscribe]
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