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Sandesh P., another Nepali worker, said “I had to pay 1,200 riyals (US$329) to my
company for my visa. I paid it within two months, directly from my salary. I [also] paid my
own [air] ticket.” 120 Bijay R., 23, told Human Rights Watch that he paid 80,000 Nepali
rupees (US$1,045) to get his job as a carpenter on a hotel construction project, but in
Qatar his employer deducted 1200 riyals (US$329) from his salary to pay for his visa. 121
Twenty-two workers said they paid fees either directly to their employers or to middlemen
in Qatar of between 250 and 3000 Qatari riyals (US$69 to $824).
Deception in Recruitment and Coercive Contract Procedures
Though workers take on significant debts to fund their employment in Qatar, few of them
have accurate or complete information about the jobs that await them, making the
migration process a gamble in which workers risk being trapped in jobs that they never
agreed to, or receiving salaries far below what they counted upon earning. Of the 73
workers interviewed by Human Rights Watch, only 19 said they had signed contracts in
their home countries, and only six said those contracts accurately reflected the job and
salary they had in Qatar. Most workers interviewed for this report said that they either did
not sign contracts before migrating, or signed one contract before departure and a new
contract upon arrival in Qatar. “Employers change the contract; they make [workers] sign a
new contract,” said N.L, an expatriate resident who teaches migrant workers in Qatar
about their rights. “A lot of workers come here for one job, then [employers] make them do
another job.” 122 Workers who took on large debts in their home countries and committed to
paying high interest rates on loans found that agents had lied or misled them about the
salaries they would earn, or even the jobs they would have, in Qatar. Some workers said
that they received as little as half the wages they had been promised before migrating, or
found themselves with little choice but to accept jobs they would not have agreed to had
they known the truth.
A pamphlet detailing workers’ rights, published by the Ministry of Labor, states that “prior
to arrival to the State of Qatar the employee must obtain a written work contract signed by
him and the employer with whom he will work.” 123 However, no law or regulation requires
employers to obtain signed contracts from workers before they come to Qatar (rather than
120 Human Rights Watch interview with Sandesh P., Doha Industrial Area, May 27, 2011.
121 Human Rights Watch interview with Bijay R., Doha Industrial Area, June 16, 2011.
122 Human Rights Watch interview with N.L., Villagio Mall, May 26, 2011.
123 Manual of Expatriate Employees in the State of Qatar, Ministry of Labor, p.11. On file with Human Rights Watch.
57 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | JUNE 2012