Qatar Failing To Protect Domestic Workers' Human, Labor Rights - Rights Watchdog

Qatar Failing to Protect Domestic Workers' Human, Labor Rights - Rights Watchdog

Migrant domestic workers in Qatar face exploitation and experience a wide range of abuses, from passport confiscation to delayed wages and forced labor, Amnesty International said in a new report on Tuesday

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th October, 2020) Migrant domestic workers in Qatar face exploitation and experience a wide range of abuses, from passport confiscation to delayed wages and forced labor, Amnesty International said in a new report on Tuesday.

The labor migration in Qatar is governed by the so-called kafala sponsorship system, which ties migrant workers � mainly women in the case of Qatar � to their immediate employers, giving the latter what the watchdog described as "excessive control."

"The organization spoke to 105 women who had been employed as live-in domestic workers in Qatar, and found that their rights were still being abused and violated despite government reforms aimed at improving their working conditions. Some women said they had been victims of serious crimes such as sexual assault," the watchdog said in a press release.

A major flaw in the labor protection system in Qatar, as pointed out by the rights organization, is that domestic workers are afraid to complain, since they are at risk of losing their legal status, income and a place to stay while lacking any means to support themselves during the process.

In 2017, Qatar introduced Domestic Workers Law as a step toward delivering better protection of labor rights. Three years later, workers interviewed told the watchdog that the law lacked proper enforcement.

According to the watchdog, the abuses that migrant workers have endured in Qatar include extreme overwork, lack of rest, and abusive and degrading treatment in addition to confiscation of passports by employers, deprivation of work pay, insults and assaults.

"The overall picture is of a system which continues to allow employers to treat domestic workers not as human beings but as possessions," Amnesty International Head of Economic and Social Justice Steve Cockburn said in the press release, adding that "If Qatar wants to protect domestic workers from exploitation, it needs to send a strong message to employers that labour abuses are not tolerated."

The watchdog further called on the Qatari authorities to "take concrete steps to ensure full implementation of the law, establish strict inspection mechanisms, and take serious actions against abusive employers."

On August 30, Qatar initiated two legal reforms aimed at the reinforcement of migrant workers rights protection.

The first reform will cancel the so-called No-Objection Certificates that are not allowing migrant workers to change jobs without the permission of their employer.

The second reform introduces a 1,000 Qatari Riyal minimum wage ($275), replacing the interim minimum wage of 750 Qatari riyal introduced in 2017.