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Vetting and educational outreach are worthwhile initiatives, but on their own the pledges
contained in Aspire Logistics’ letter fall short of what is needed to adequately deter abuses of
workers’ rights and ensure accountability for those responsible. The company did not, for
example, address how it would tackle the key issue of recruitment fees for migrant workers,
other than to acknowledge that the Qatari legal requirement that sponsoring employers
reimburse such fees only applies for employees hired locally and that migrant workers hired
from overseas enjoy no such protection. Aspire Logistics declined to endorse the specific
recommendations Human Rights Watch provided on this and other issues, saying only that it
would take the ideas into consideration. The correspondence is attached as part of an
appendix to this report.
While Qatar’s Sponsorship Law prohibits employers from confiscating workers’ passports,
Labor Ministry officials told Human Rights Watch that labor inspectors do not monitor
passport confiscation, and showed little concern for curbing this widespread practice. 190
“The worker doesn’t need the passport for any procedures,” Mohammed al-Obeidly, head
of the Labor Ministry’s Legal Affairs department told Human Rights Watch. 191
In a November 2011 response to follow-up queries from Human Rights Watch, Ministry of
Labor officials stressed that while “employers previously held the passport of migrant
workers … this phenomenon has ended after the issuance of the law on the entry, exit,
sponsorship, and residence of foreigners (Law 4/2009), which requires the sponsor to
return the passport to the worker after the conclusion of all necessary measures.” 192
However, workers interviewed for this report nearly universally reported that their
employers continued to hold their passports. Ashok P., a worker from Sri Lanka, said that
he had surrendered his passport against his will. “I am not giving [the passport] by myself.
I am also fighting with them. But they are plucking it from my hand.” 193 Bhawan T., a Nepali
worker, told Human Rights Watch that his company held his passport, and that while he
could get it back if he asked, the procedure was complicated and took time. “If we need
190 Law No.4 of 2009, art.9 states that “the sponsor shall deliver the passport or travel document to the sponsored person
once the procedures for issuing or renewing the residence permit are accomplished”; Human Rights Watch meeting with
Nasser al-Mannai, Director of Recruitment Department, Mohamed al-Obeidly, Director of Legal Affairs Department, and Salih
al-Shawi, Director of Labor Relations Department, Ministry of Labor, Doha, Qatar, June 22, 2011.
191 Ibid.
192 Letter from the Qatar Ministry of Labor to Human Rights Watch, November 1, 2011, p. 4.
193 Human Rights Watch interview with Ashok P., al-Khor, June 24, 2011.
73 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | JUNE 2012