11t5l

12 THE CASE AGAINST QATARCase 9Employer refuses torepatriate workers[Job]Maintenance[Sector]Construction[Name]Francis* and Jeff*[Country]Philippines[Age] 28, 31We have worked in Doha for two years. During this time our passportswere confiscated and we did not have a residence permit,as our sponsor failed to apply for one. Even though we regularlyworked 60 hours per week, we were not paid for overtime, and ourmanagers made unjustifiedsalary deductions.Our situation deterioratedfurther when thecompany closed downin December 2012. Weboth wanted to go homeand knew that our employerhas to pay for our9 -12 stadiums willbe refurbished orconstructed for the2022 World CupPhoto: Benjamin Crowerepatriation according to the law and our employment contract.But no repatriation was arranged, and we continued to live on thecompany site until November 2013. We were unable to go home orto look for another job because we didn’t have our passports. Weasked the Ministry of Labour for advice and were then referred tothe Immigration Department, which helped us to go back home. Butthe whole process almost took a year, which means that we had tospend all our savings and had to return home with nothing.Case 10Discriminatory legalsystem[Job]Accountant assistant[Sector]Bookstore[Name]Michael*[Country]Philippines[Age] 25I was carrying out my job as an accountant assistant to the satisfactionof my company from August 2008 to October 2012.My contract ended in August 2012, so I handed a resignation letterto management. When my employer refused to pay pending wages,I complained to my embassy about it. I didn’t expect my employerto retaliate against my legitimate request by accusing me of fraud.Police arrested and interrogated me on 23 November 2012 withoutproviding me with a lawyer. There was no chance that I couldhave escaped legal proceedings because my employer was illegallyholding my passport, but I was still not granted temporary releasepending trial. A lawyer took my case on a pro-bono basis but had topay US$ 137 to get a power of attorney.For more than three monthsno admissible evidencewas submitted to court thatcould have incriminatedme. Nevertheless, the courtgave several extensionsto my employer to provideevidence.Qatar estimates500,000 moreworkers will beneeded over the nexteight yearsFinally, the court askedfor an independent expertreport on the matter. The expert produced a report without once interviewingme. The entire report was based on the statements anddocuments provided by my employer. They claimed that money wasmissing from the accounts, though I did not handle any cash for thecompany and had no reason to tamper with the accounts. Earlier,the company had lost all of its accounting records, which we hadre-entered on overtime.After waiting for over a year in jail, I was informed in late February2014 that I was to be sentenced to three years in jail and face aUS$ 2746 fine.