Qatar: Migrant Construction Workers Face Abuse

(Doha, Qatar – June 12, 2012) – Hundreds of thousands of mostly South Asian migrant construction workers in Qatar risk serious exploitation and abuse, sometimes amounting to forced labor, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Both the government and the The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) need to make sure that their commitments to respect workers' rights in preparation for the 2022 World Cup are carried out, Human Rights Watch said.The Human Rights Watch report, 'Building a Better World Cup: Protecting Migrant Workers in Qatar Ahead of FIFA 2022,' examines an employment system that effectively traps workers in their jobs. The problems include exorbitant recruitment fees, which often take workers years to pay off, coupled with Qatar's restrictive employer sponsorship system and the employers' routine confiscation of worker passports, granting employers inordinate control over the workers. Workers' high debts and the restrictions they face if they want to change employers often leave them to accept jobs or working conditions they did not agree to in their home countries, or to continue work under conditions of abuse, Human Rights Watch found. Workers face obstacles to reporting complaints or seeking redress, and the abuses often go undetected.
 
Photographs contributed by Sam Tarling for Human Rights Watch's report on Migrant Workers in Qatar. Sam Tarling currently works at Executive Magazine.