Qatar detains, deports protesting workers
Amid scrutiny ahead of World Cup, nation punishes foreign laborers who say they didn’t receive wages.
DUBAI — Qatar recently arrested at least 60 foreign workers who protested after going months without pay and deported some of them, only three months before Doha hosts the 2022 FIFA World Cup, an advocacy group said.
The move comes as Qatar faces international scrutiny over its labor practices ahead of the quadrennial soccer tournament. Like other Gulf Arab nations, Qatar heavily relies on foreign labor. The workers’ protest a week ago — and Qatar’s reaction to it — could add to the concerns.
The head of a labor consultancy investigating the incident said the detentions cast new doubt on Qatar’s pledges to improve the treatment of workers.
“Is this really the reality coming out?” asked Mustafa Qadri, executive director of Equidem.
In a statement Sunday night to the Associated Press, Qatar’s government acknowledged that “a number of protesters were detained for breaching public safety laws.” It declined to offer information about the arrests or any deportations.
Video posted online showed about 60 workers protesting over wages Aug. 14 in Doha, the capital,
outside the offices of Al Bandary International Group, a conglomerate of construction, real estate and food service businesses; hotels; and other ventures. Some of those demonstrating hadn’t received wages for as long as seven months, Equidem said.
The protesters blocked an intersection on Doha’s C Ring Road in front of the Al Shoumoukh Tower. The video matched details of the street, including massive portraits of Qatar’s ruling emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, looking down on pedestrians.
Al Bandary International Group, which is privately owned, did not respond to requests for comment.
The Qatari government acknowledged that the firm hadn’t paid wages and that the Labor Ministry would pay “all delayed salaries and benefits” to those affected.
“The company was already under investigation by the authorities for nonpayment of wages before the incident, and now further action is being taken after a deadline to settle outstanding salary payments was missed,” the government said.
Qadri said police arrested the protesters and held them in a detention center, where some described being in stifling heat; Doha’s temperature this week reached nearly 106 degrees. Qadri described police telling detainees that if they could strike in hot weather, they could sleep without air conditioning.
One worker who called Equidem from the detention center described seeing as many as 300 colleagues there who came from Bangladesh, Egypt, India, Nepal and the Philippines. He said some had received wages after the protest and others hadn’t.
His comments could not be corroborated.
Qatar, like other Gulf Arab nations, has been known to deport demonstrating foreign workers and has tied residency visas to employment. The right to form unions remains tightly controlled and is available only to Qataris, as is the limited right to assembly, according to the Washington advocacy group Freedom House.
A small, energy-rich nation on the Arabian Peninsula, Qatar is home to the state-funded Al Jazeera satellite news network. However, expression in the country remains tightly controlled. Last year, Qatar detained and later deported a Kenyan security guard who wrote and spoke publicly about the woes of the country’s migrant labor force.
Since the World Cup was awarded to Qatar in 2010, the country has taken steps to overhaul its employment practices. Those have included eliminating the socalled kafala system, which tied workers to their employers, who had say over whether the workers could leave their jobs or even the country.
Qatar also has adopted a minimum monthly wage of $275 and required food and housing allowances for employees who do not receive them directly from their employers.
Activists like Qadri have called on Doha to do more, particularly when it comes to ensuring that workers receive their pay on time and are protected from abusive employers.
“Have we all been duped by Qatar over the last several years?” Qadri asked, suggesting that recent reforms might have been “a cover” for authorities to allow prevailing labor practices to continue.
The World Cup is scheduled to start in November.