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The Labor Law currently requires employers to produce records proving payment of
workers’ salaries every six months. 153 The Ministry of Labor letter stated that “the Ministry
conducts monthly inspections of all companies and institutions and audits their accounts
to ensure that workers receive their wages.” However, workers interviewed by Human
Rights Watch reported that employers withheld their salaries, or did not pay them for
months at a time. E.M., a longtime expatriate resident of Qatar who has spent years
assisting migrant workers in distress, told Human Rights Watch that with workers she
meets, “… there’s always a payment problem. Big companies don’t pay, then contractors
don’t pay, then subcontractors don’t pay [their workers].” 154
Housing Conditions
Most migrant construction workers in Qatar live in what are called “labor camps,” or
communal accommodations meant to house large groups of workers. Some companies
maintain company camps, while others rent space for their workers in camps owned and
maintained by another company. Human Rights Watch also interviewed workers who lived
in villas—large houses subdivided to accommodate workers — and workers who slept at
their work sites. While some workers said they lived in clean rooms with adequate space
and good facilities, others lived in cramped, unsanitary, and inhumane conditions.
Qatari regulations on worker accommodation state that no more than four workers should
be housed in a room, that space provided for each worker must be at least four square
meters, and that employers should not provide “double beds” (bunk beds) for workers. 155
They require employers to provide workers with a mattress and bed coverings, an airconditioning
unit “sufficient and suitable” for the room, and a water cooler for every 20
workers. 156 However, all workers interviewed by Human Rights Watch for this report said
they slept in bunk beds. At all six of the labor camps Human Rights Watch visited, rooms
housed between eight and 18 workers, and some workers reported sleeping in rooms with
as many as 25 other people. As N.K., an expatriate journalist who regularly covers migrant
labor issues, observed, “Most of the laborers in Qatar are housed in what they call ‘labor
camps.’ When you look at them, you will call them shanties or slums. Twenty to thirty
153 Law No.14 of 2004, art.19.
154 Human Rights Watch interview with E.M., Villagio Mall, May 26, 2011.
155 Decree of the Minister for Civil Service and Residential Affairs No.18 of 2005, arts.2, 3.
156 Ibid., art.3.
65 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | JUNE 2012