Download the full report - Human Rights Watch

III. Abuse of Migrant Workers
Like most migrant workers throughout the Gulf region, migrant construction workers in
Qatar face a host of systemic policies and practices that impede their basic labor rights.
Workers pay exorbitant recruitment fees in their home countries, taking on debts that leave
them desperate to keep their jobs in Qatar regardless of the working conditions. Recruiting
agents often provide inadequate information or deceive workers about the jobs they will
perform or the salary they will earn. Many workers see no written agreement until they
arrive in Qatar, while some never see one at all. Between workers’ recruitment debts and
shoddy contracting requirements that fail to guard against deception, workers risk being
subjected to forced labor, or conditions of human trafficking. Qatari law does little to
address the abuse that prevails throughout workers’ recruitment processes.
While neighboring countries such as Kuwait and Bahrain have begun the process of
sponsorship reform, Qatar’s Sponsorship Law remains one of the most restrictive in the
Gulf region, leaving workers at the mercy of their sponsoring employers. Workers cannot
change jobs or leave the country without their sponsor’s written permission. While the law
does allow transfer in cases of abuse, government authorities rarely granted such transfers
in practice. Redress mechanisms provide some relief, but remain time-consuming and
difficult to access. Coupled with the wide-scale reports of passport confiscation, workers
are effectively trapped in their jobs. With little proactive enforcement by the government of
protective laws on the books, workers have few options to seek redress for abuses.
Protection Gaps in the Recruitment Process
Migrant workers obtain jobs in Qatar through two main routes. Some workers approach
recruitment agencies in their home countries, which work either with Qatar-based
recruitment agencies or contract directly with employers in Qatar to provide requested
manpower. 97 Other workers find jobs through personal contacts—a friend, family member,
or acquaintance already in Qatar whose employer has asked them to recruit others for jobs,
97 Human Rights Watch interview with Setu R., Doha Industrial Area, May 26, 2011; interview with Rohit T., Doha Industrial
Area, May 28, 2011; interview with Akshay R., downtown Doha, June 17, 2011.
51 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | JUNE 2012