Qatar: Failure to Pay Contractors Harms Migrant Workers,14 December 2025

Qatari government clients and other major businesses are failing to pay contractors on time for projects, leaving migrant workers unpaid, Human Rights Watch said today. Subcontractors and others in the supply chain are also affected and themselves shortchange workers...Between February and March 2024 and in September 2025, Human Rights Watch interviewed 16 people who had been employed by Qatar labor supply companies. Human Rights Watch also reviewed contractual agreements and email correspondence from two subcontractors. One employed thousands of migrant workers, including for Qatari government agencies and large-scale construction companies. The other was a labor supply company. Names of those interviewed are withheld because they fear retaliation...Documents reviewed showed that both subcontractors struggled to pay workers when their clients did not release payments as contractually obligated...

When clients do not make timely payments, they may be complicit in contributing to wage theft against migrant workers... Human Rights Watch reviewed contracts specifying payment within 45 days of invoice submission, but payments had been delayed by almost a year...Human Rights Watch reviewed letters supporting this claim, including those sent to clients that laid out the adverse outcomes and requested payment...“pay when paid” clause included in contracts can contribute to wage theft, and Qatar should instead extend liability for wages beyond the immediate employer in subcontracting chains...Multiple workers employed by at least five labor supply companies said that their management often delayed their wages and told them that they would be paid once the client company pays them...

Workers said they lived in overcrowded rooms and had inadequate water and electricity access and unhygienic restrooms. One worker lost 55 pounds in his first year working in Qatar due to the physically demanding work and the inedible food... Neither the bare-bones contract nor the bid specified standards for meals, accommodation, transportation, or any other human rights obligations of either party. The incomplete contracts also explicitly breached the labor law by setting minimum daily hours worked at 10 instead of 8... Qatari authorities should hold major companies responsible for labor abuses committed by subcontractors and labor supply companies. All businesses should uphold worker protections across their operations and supply chains...