Qatar: Report into COVID-19 impact on migrants commends public health measures but finds failure to protect against economic hardship & increased unfair recruitment risk ahead of FIFA World Cup
Ekkasit A Siam, Shutterstock
NYU Stern's Center for Business and Human Rights published a report in March 2022 highlighting the abuses migrant workers in the Qatari construction sector continue to face as a combined result of market pressures and the Covid-19 pandemic, despite Qatar making “more reform promises than other Gulf countries". The report draws on testimony recorded from interviews conducted with 26 workers either in Qatar or repatriated during the pandemic, and who had been employed or subcontracted on multimillion, government projects. The interviews were carried our by researchers with NGO Equidem.
The report found that while government public health measures were effectively and thoroughly implemented to encompass migrant workers, economic pressures of paused construction work while on tight deadlines has exposed workers to increased risk of labour exploitation. Recruitment fees and wage delays remain critical issues for migrant workers mainly from South Asian countries, leaving them indebted yet unable to leave for fears over losing the sole source of livelihood for them and their families. During COVID-19 thousands of workers who were either laid off or deported were most likely to suffer.
"Workers paying recruitment charges instead of employers is the norm."Ray Jureidini, professor of migration ethics and human rights at Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Doha.
The construction sector in particular remains fertile ground for said abuses. The report sheds light on how higher standards on World Cup construction projects have led to improvement in some areas for workers, though rights groups continue to highlight cases of abuse relating to stadiums, and notes that thousands of workers across Qatar who are working for the success of the World Cup remain at high risk of suffering labour violations. The author calls on FIFA to oversee the improvement in implementation of measures that ensure workers rights are being met, and issues recommendations to the government, construction sector employers, FIFA, World Cup sponsors, broadcasters and national football teams ahead of World Cup kick-off in November 2021.
The Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy and the Qatari Government did not respond to request for comment on the report.