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Article

28 Sep 2018

Author:
Amnesty International

Qatar: Migrant workers unpaid for months of work by company linked to World Cup host city

See all tags Allegations

Mercury MENA, failed to pay its workers thousands of dollars in wages and work benefits, leaving them stranded and penniless in Qatar...Between October 2017 and April 2018 Amnesty International interviewed 78 former Mercury MENA employees from India, Nepal and the Philippines...Most of the former Mercury MENA employees interviewed by Amnesty International were owed between US$1,370 and US$2,470 (QAR 5,000 and 9,000) in salaries and benefits...The company also failed to provide legally required residence permits to workers, which led to fines that placed additional restrictions on their ability to move jobs or leave the country. Recruitment agencies hired by Mercury MENA illegally charged workers high fees for their jobs, compelling them to take out high interest loans. This pushed them into severe debt that made it difficult for workers to escape or challenge exploitative conditions.

Amnesty International is calling on the Nepal and Qatar governments to support the former Mercury MENA workers to get justice and receive the money that they are owed, and to take steps to prevent similar cases from arising in the future.

In November 2017 Amnesty International spoke to the CEO of Mercury MENA, who acknowledged long-standing pay delays but denied exploiting workers. He said that Mercury MENA had been the victim of unscrupulous business partners resulting in “cashflow problems” and a number of disputes over payments with contractors and clients. Documented communications between Mercury MENA and its workers show that the company’s management were fully aware of the problems with salary payments, and continued to make promises to pay wages that were ultimately not kept. Amnesty sent further emails to Mercury MENA’s CEO in December 2017 and January 2018 requesting information about their situation and what actions they were taking, as well as a letter in July 2018 summarizing the key points of our investigation, to which no response was provided.

Read Part 1: Qatar

Read Part 2: Nepal

Read the Qatar government's response here

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