Still Struggling: Migrant Construction Workers In Qatar During The Pandemic
March 2022
How did migrant laborers in the Middle East fare during the Covid-19 crisis and the run-up to the 2022 World Cup?
Our report assesses the treatment of millions of foreign construction workers in Qatar who have been essential to the country’s preparation for hosting the World Cup in November 2022. While the Qatari government provided adequate, free healthcare for migrant laborers, it did not invest comparable energy or resources in addressing long-standing economic issues. These include arbitrary wage reductions and delays and the widespread practice of forcing workers to pay for their own recruitment and transportation.
Migrant workers should not pay the costs of their own recruitment.
International labor law and Qatari national law forbid making migrant workers pay for their own recruitment and transportation. But while it has enacted certain labor reforms of late, the Qatari government does not act aggressively to make sure that employers cover recruitment costs. As a result, an overwhelming majority of workers shoulder these costs themselves, which requires them to seek high-interest loans. Pressure to repay this debt makes workers more vulnerable to exploitation by their employers.
With worldwide attention focused on Qatar as host of the World Cup, this is an ideal moment to push for change.
In our report, we advocate that World Cup organizers, corporate sponsors, and national soccer teams need to put pressure on the Qatari government to enact and enforce more protective worker-welfare laws. For their part, companies employing migrant laborers must shoulder the costs of recruiting their workforces and factor those costs into their bids for contracts.
Global LaborRelated
See all
A Broken Partnership: How Clothing Brands Exploit Suppliers and Harm Workers –And What Can Be Done About It
Ten years after the Rana Plaza factory collapse, a new report from the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights calls for a reformed collaborative approach to the outsourced manufacturing of apparel—one that does not create unfair economic pressure on factory owners, who all too often respond to such exploitation by reducing wages and benefits for their poor employees.
Cobalt Mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: Addressing Root Causes of Human Rights Abuses
Research director Dorothée Baumann-Pauly published a white paper in collaboration with the Geneva Center for Business and Human Rights which assesses ASM formalization projects. Her work highlights that the extraction from open pits and the integration of women are key success factors for addressing root causes of mine safety risks and child labor.
Seeking A ‘Smart-Mix’: Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives and Mandatory Human Rights Due Diligence
In our white paper, we delve into the role of Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives (MSIs) in defining and implementing industry-specific human rights standards, highlighting their potential to shape meaningful corporate practices with government support.