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However, the lack of official complaints provides no evidence that workers are not paying
such fees, given the significant barriers and deterrents they face to filing complaints. In
fact, nearly all workers interviewed reported that they had paid recruitment fees to
recruiting agents in their home countries in order to obtain their jobs in Qatar, whether
they then migrated through Qatari recruitment agencies or through acquaintances in the
country. The government should not rely on worker complaints to enforce laws banning the
charging of recruiting fees, or any other laws designed to protect worker rights. Migrant
construction workers are in a particularly weak position to seek legal protection, in light of
language and knowledge barriers and the fact that they face potential reprisals from their
employers, who control their ability to remain in the country. As noted by the government,
92% of workers who have filed complaints have been forced to continue their employment
with the same employer during the pending review of their complaints. The government
should proactively investigate the extent to which employers are abiding by laws and
enforce penalties against those who are not.
Ministry of Labor officials further added, in a letter to Human Rights Watch, that “regarding
the levying of fees by some manpower firms in labor-exporting states, this may indeed
happen because it is outside the control of the Qatari Ministry of Labor, although the
Ministry does work to limit this by asking the governments of these countries to supply it
with the names of licensed, authorized recruitment firms, in order to direct employers to
deal with them, through meetings of the joint committees with these countries or via their
embassies in Doha.” While such efforts are commendable, they are inadequate. Instead,
the government should require employers to seek formal statements from recruiting agents
abroad, as well as workers before they leave their home country, attesting to whether they
have charged or paid such fees, as the case may be. It should also require employers to
reimburse workers who have paid such recruiting fees. Finally, it should proactively
investigate the role of Qatari agencies and their relationship with sending country
recruiting agents, including the extent to which they may be surreptitiously seeking
payment from workers, as some studies have indicated. 58
Section VII discusses problems in the recruitment process in greater detail.
58 The World Bank, The Qatar-Nepal Remittance Corridor: Enhancing the Impact and Integrity of Remittance Flows by
Reducing Inefficiencies in the Migration Process, (Washington DC: World Bank, 2011), p.9.
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