Unpaid workers in Qatar suffer hunger: Amnesty

Amnesty International has slammed Qatar for treatment of migrant workers preparing venues for the 2022 World Cup as they are facing “severe food shortages.”

The human rights organization urged Qatari officials on Wednesday to tackle the problems of 80 migrant workers doing construction work on a skyscraper in the capital Doha, saying they are “working in conditions that may amount to forced labor.”

“They have not been paid for nearly a year and can’t even buy food to sustain themselves on a day-to-day basis. They also can’t afford to send money back home to their families or to pay off debts,” said Salil Shetty, secretary general of Amnesty International.

There are about 60 Nepalese workers along with some others from Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Nigeria, China and Bangladesh.

According to Amnesty, the group has been working on floors 38 and 39 of Doha’s Al-Bidda Tower, known as “Qatar’s Home of Football.”

Qatari contractor, Lee Trading and Contracting (LTC) company, owed the workers some 1.5 million riyals (about $412,000) for the work finished in October, Amnesty said.

“‘Do the work and we’ll pay you tomorrow’, they said,” a Nepalese worker told Amnesty.

“We kept doing the work and they kept changing the date and we never got paid.”

The workers had filed a law suit against LTC in Doha’s Labor Court but they were required to pay 600 riyals ($165) each for their cases to proceed.

Under Qatari law, they should have been exempted from paying the fee, Amnesty said.

Shetty asked the Qatari authorities to mediate in the workers’ case, saying it would “signal that the government really means what it says about protecting workers’ rights.”

Foreign workers in Qatar cannot change jobs without the permission of their employers. They need residence permit in order to find another job.