Qatar: Time needed to rebuild trust

Boycott adds to woes of migrant workers

DOHA:

Qatar’s foreign minister said yesterday it will take a “lot of time” to rebuild any trust between sparring Gulf countries because of the region’s continuing diplomatic crisis. As the impasse between Doha and four Arab states led by Saudi Arabia entered its 11th week, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said regional relations had been transformed by the dispute.

“Qatar has always been one of the founders of the GCC organization and we still consider that this has a great importance for all of us in the region,” he told reporters. Created in 1981, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is a political and economic union comprised of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. “This organization has been built on strategic security and trust. Unfortunately, what happened lately with this crisis, this factor is missing now and needs a lot of time to rebuild the trust again. We hope that it’s restored.”

Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt cut ties with Qatar on June 5 - accusing it of backing extremism and fostering ties with Iran - triggering the biggest political crisis in the Gulf for several years. Doha denies the claims and accuses the other countries of an attack on its sovereignty. The Saudi-led countries have also imposed sanctions including restrictions on Qatari aircraft using their airspace.

The foreign minister added that the conflict was unnecessary. “Such a crisis is not needed in our region, we have enough problems and enough conflict. A region like the Gulf region, which was considered the most stable region in the Arab world is now destabilized because... of a crisis without a solid foundation.”

However, he added that diplomatic efforts led by regional mediator Kuwait were continuing. “We have received a letter from the Amir of Kuwait a few days ago. And this letter is a continuous effort... to encourage the parties to engage in dialogue.” Despite this, Sheikh Mohammed said Qatar was still waiting to hear from its rivals. “Put up your claims and put up your evidence. We told them (Saudi-led countries) anywhere you want, whatever evidence you have, just put it on the table. Now it’s been 72 days since the first day of their measures and we have not been provided with a single document.”

Experts have speculated that the diplomatic uncertainty in the region will lead to the demise of the GCC. One, Andreas Krieg, a political risk analyst at King’s College London, told AFP that the GCC was “dying by the day”. “The Kuwaiti Amir is a great believer in the GCC and will do everything he can to resolve the crisis to save the GCC. However, realistically, the GCC cannot survive this crisis,” he said. Meanwhile, the embargo on Qatar is inflicting pain on foreign migrant workers struggling amid an oil slump and disruption of deliveries

for large construction projects linked to the 2022 football World Cup. To get around the boycott, Qatar has flown in food from Turkey and Iran and chartered ships via Oman to bring in construction materials needed for World Cup projects.

But the feud is making life harder for some foreign workers in Qatar, already faced by layoffs caused by low oil prices and a work-sponsorship system that restricts their movement. Fresh vegetables usually trucked across Qatar’s land border with Saudi Arabia, a route now blocked, have increased in price. That is indebting some workers from places like India and Nepal who typically earn 800 rials ($219.78) a month and who make up about 90 percent of Qatar’s 2.7 million population.

South Asian workers have been left stranded on Qatari farms in Saudi Arabia without food after their Qatari employers fled to Doha in June, according to a Human Rights Watch report. Last week dozens of Indian and African workers at hotels in Doha were told to take extended unpaid leave and return to their countries because of a drop in occupancy caused by the embargo. “Our rooms were filled with Saudis on weekends but they don’t come to Qatar any more. We can’t have workers cleaning empty rooms,” said a Doha hotel manager, declining to give his or his company’s name.

Qatar has denied reports of lower hotel occupancy rates and said its preparations for the World Cup have not been affected. The tiny Gulf state’s economy, buoyed by vast natural gas reserves, can weather years of sanctions, officials say. But any pause in the flow of construction materials could delay projects and leave migrant workers vulnerable to exploitation, said Gulf labor researcher Mustafa Qadri. “The impact could reverberate to South Asia, the Philippines and East Africa where migrants’ families depend heavily on remittances.”

At an Indian restaurant near Doha’s airport on Monday, Japesh Afsal, a waiter serving fish curry to laborers, said rising prices had hurt business. “Fish prices are up. If we raise our prices this will be hard for customers,” he said. Raji, a Bangladeshi crane-operator, said his manager told him that his pay could be delayed next month because the company was running out of steel, previously imported from the UAE.

A work-sponsorship system widely enforced in the Gulf and known in Qatar as “kafala” requires foreign workers to get their employer’s consent to change jobs or leave the country. Qatar says it has ended kafala but some migrants still work without proper access to water or shelter from sun, rights groups say. The crisis may bring change. Last Wednesday, Qatar announced a plan to allow Indians and dozens of other nationalities to enter Qatar on arrival without a visa. Qatar’s emir in a rare public address last month thanked the country’s foreign residents for their contributions. “Foreigners built this country. Qatar knows it cannot survive without them,” said Marie Trichia, a barista at Doha’s Gate Mall. — Agencies