Qatar denies stopping migrants leaving
Unions say foreign workers are being refused exit permits
MUSCAT // Qatar yesterday denied it was violating a new labour law by blocking migrants from leaving the country, saying it was committed to enforcing reforms to improve the rights of millions of foreign workers.
A law making it easier for migrants to change jobs and leave the Gulf state – where many of them have been recruited to build football stadiums ahead of the 2022 Fifa World Cup – came into effect in December.
But human rights groups said the law was not being enforced and that scores of migrant workers from countries such as India, Bangladesh and Nepal have been refused permission to leave the country.
The Qatari government said any suggestion it was not committed to enforcing the reforms, or that it was denying the freedom of movement of foreign workers, was false.
About 90 per cent of Qatar’s 2.5 million population are migrants. Many work in low-paid construction jobs. Doha’s kafala sponsorship system – under which migrants cannot change jobs or leave the country without their employer’s permission – had come under scrutiny amid allegations it amounted to forced labour.
Qatar passed a law on December 13 scrapping the need for migrants to get exit permits from employers, and imposing fines on employers who confiscated workers’ passports and withheld their salaries. But trade unionists said migrants still required a government exit permit – and that more than 200 migrants had been blocked from leaving Qatar since the law was passed.
The Qatari government confirmed that 213 out of 184,551 requests for exit permits were denied, but said it was because the individuals were facing criminal charges.
“We have explicitly stated that expatriates would be prevented from leaving Qatar if there was strong evidence the expatriate had committed fraud or was attempting to evade prosecution for a crime,” it said.
The International Labour Organisation has given Doha until November to implement the reforms or potentially face an investigation into the forced labour of migrants in the lead-up to the World Cup.