Gulf’s migrant workers fear coronavirus limbo

DOHA: Millions of migrant workers across the Gulf face uncertainty as host countries lock down, employers withhold wages or mull redundancies, and strict coronavirus containment measures lead to deportations and confinement.

“We’ve been in lockdown for the last eight to 10 days. We don’t know when it will end,” said a 27-yearold Pakistani engineer in Qatar, beginning a second week under mandatory quarantine.

“The basic issue we are facing now is groceries. The government is providing us with food but only after some days — and little things only.”

He is among tens of thousands of workers strictly confined to Doha’s Industrial Area after dozens in the blue-collar district tested positive for the coronavirus disease 2019.

Advocacy groups, including Human Rights Watch ( HRW) and Amnesty, warn that cramped accommodation and inadequate sanitation endanger migrant workers across the Gulf, who may not have access to healthcare.

They also face salaries going unpaid and arbitrary dismissal or deportation — an outcome that could spell disaster for families at home dependent on their income.

“Migrant workers in the Gulf are already disadvantaged [ under] a labor governance system that gives employers excessive powers over migrant workers and drives their abuse and exploitation,” HRW’s Gulf researcher Hiba Zayadin said.

“Gulf countries should go above and beyond in introducing measures to prevent the spread of the virus in migrant accommodations and migrant detention centers.”

With the region so far reporting 3,200 cases of the disease, Amnesty said that workers “trapped in camps” are particularly vulnerable, enduring conditions that make social distancing impossible.

Some laborers in Saudi Arabia, home to 10 million expat workers, complained that they were required by bosses to work while Saudis were permitted paid quarantine leave.

One said he was told to accept unpaid leave if he felt unwell, but opted to continue working.

“Many workers in the private sector are suffering due to the closure of most sectors, as many owners force the workers to sit in their homes without a salary,” an Arab diplomat based in Riyadh said.

“And despite the kingdom’s compensation to the private sector, the owners use it to cover their losses due to the closure without caring for the workers.”

After Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates hosts the Gulf’s second largest migrant labor force with 8.7 million, followed by Kuwait with 2.8 million.

Gas-rich Qatar’s record on migrant labor has been under the spotlight since it won the right to host the 2022 World Cup, with seven new football stadiums as well as towering skyscrapers to be built by an army of foreign workers.

Ninety percent of Qatar’s 2.75 million people are expats. Many are from developing countries and working on projects linked to the tournament — stadium construction has continued even as other businesses have shuttered.

The International Labor Organization’s (ILO) Doha office said several employers had transferred staff to more spacious lodgings over fears cramped conditions could incubate the virus, while others have improved hygiene.

The ILO questioned how long companies could continue paying workers as the crisis continues, chilling Gulf economies, which have been blindsided by the plunge in oil prices.

Mass redundancies, avoided so far, would do huge economic damage to countries sending labor to the region, said the head of the ILO’s Qatar office, Houtan Homayounpour.