Migrant workers: Qatar still to answer for mass wage theft, 7 Dec 2022

"In 2015, when I joined Leighton Contracting Qatar as a land surveyor, I felt proud,” Varun Babu, a migrant worker from India, recalled. “Big company and good salary – we built the Doha Orbital Highway, part of the 2022 FIFA World Cup! But in March 2020, everything turned upside down.”...“The company called us to the office and told us to resign,” Babu continued. “I didn't, because it is hard to reclaim the end-of-service benefits if we resign. But if they terminate us, we can claim it.” He was fired.

For Babu, the stakes were high. He expected to receive around $5,500 as his end-of-service benefit. Babu was told that he would be paid soon, so he waited. He stayed in Qatar as long as he could. But it didn’t come. "Finally,” Babu said, “when we couldn't manage money, even for food, a few of us returned, giving up hope."...

Despite...[the] reforms, Babu’s story shows that forms of wage theft persist in Qatar.

Babu, for example, managed to claim his lost end-of-service benefit by turning to Migrant Forum in Asia for help. "I managed to get 18 co-workers to fight for our wages,” Babu said. “We were eligible for $161,410. And in 2021, the MFA managed to get us back our money. They helped others too in the following months.”

Others are still fighting. Kiran Paul (name changed), who migrated to Qatar in 2012 and worked on the Al Bayt stadium, is still waiting to receive his due....