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fees, workers said that some employers then deducted the paid amounts from workers’
wages. Past Human Rights Watch reports in the Gulf found that these fees trap workers in
jobs even when employers abuse their rights, leading to forced labor as defined by
international law.
Many workers said that recruitment agents told them they would earn higher wages or
have more desirable jobs than they found when they arrived in Qatar. After traveling
thousands of miles, they said they had little choice but to accept work they had not agreed
to perform, and unsatisfactory conditions and practices that included employers
withholding wages (typically as security to prevent them from quitting), illegal wage
deductions, or salaries far below those promised. Some said they signed contracts under
coercive circumstances, while others never saw an employment contract at all.
Worker Complaints
Workers’ top complaints focused on wages, which typically ranged from $8 to $11 for
between nine and eleven hours of grueling outdoor work each day, and were sometimes as
low as $6.75 per day. In many cases this amount was less than what recruitment agents
had promised workers in their home countries, and workers said it did not cover
adequately their food costs and recruitment loan fees. In other cases, workers said they
did not receive payment for months. In a letter to Human Rights Watch detailing these
issues, officials from the Qatari Ministry of Labor stated that a labor contract may be
signed inside Qatar after the worker’s arrival, or in the worker’s home country, and that in
either case representatives of both Qatar and the labor-sending country must approve the
contract. They added that all contracts must include the minimum requirements of a model
contract. However, the model contract does not include a minimum wage guideline, and in
cases where workers sign their contracts in Qatar, those we interviewed said they had little
choice but to do so, having already incurred recruitment and migration-related debts.
Workers also reported illegal and arbitrary wage deductions for things like visa costs,
bedding, food, or health care, even though Qatar’s labor regulations and model
employment contract do not specifically permit these deductions and specifically prohibit
some. They also reported denial of free movement and lack of access to medical care.
Local regulations set high standards for workers’ housing, allowing companies to house no
more than four workers in the same room, banning the use of bunk beds, and requiring
3 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | JUNE 2012