Qatar exploits migrant workers: Amnesty International

 A new report by Amnesty International (AI) has revealed how migrant domestic workers employed in Qatar have been pushed to breaking point by extreme overwork, lack of rest, and abusive and degrading treatment, weeks after the gas-rich country gathered all the praise for introducing landmark labour reforms like abolishing exploitative ‘kafala’ system and fixing a new minimum wage.

The AI said – in its report – that it spoke to 105 women, who had been employed as live-in domestic workers in Qatar and found that their rights were still being abused and violated despite government reforms aimed at improving their working conditions. Some women had been victims of serious crimes like sexual assault, it reads, adding that as many as 90 of the 105 women contacted by the London-based advocacy group said they regularly worked more than 14 hours per day; 89 reported regularly working seven days a week; and 87 had their passports confiscated by their employers. “Half of the women worked more than 18 hours per day, and most had never had a single day off at all.”

Some also reported not being appropriately paid, while 40 women described being insulted, slapped or spat at, it adds.

All of this gruesome treatment of domestic workers had taken place despite in 2017 Qatar introducing the Domestic Workers Law, which stipulated limits on working hours, mandatory daily breaks, a weekly day off and paid holidays. “The introduction of the 2017 Domestic Workers Law was a step forward for labour rights protection in Qatar,” head of Economic and Social Justice at Amnesty International Steve Cockburn was quoted in the report. “Sadly, the accounts of the women we spoke to make it clear that these reforms have not been properly implemented or enforced.”

“Almost all had their passport confiscated by their employers, and others described not getting their salaries and being subjected to vicious insults and assaults,” said Cockburn.

The Gulf state hosts around 173,000 migrant domestic workers. Some of the women interviewed were still in their jobs, whereas others had left but remained in Qatar, and others had returned to their home countries.

According to their contracts, domestic workers should work no more than 10 hours a day, six days a week, which is already higher than standards set out by the International Labour Organisation (ILO). On an average they worked 16 hours per day, without being paid any overtime.

The Qatari Domestic Workers Law limits working hours to a maximum of ten hours a day but allows for this to be extended, if agreed by the worker. Many women said they felt scared to refuse their employers’ endless requests for more work, even when they needed to rest, the report reads, adding that at least 23 women said they were not given enough food and felt hungry during their employment in Qatar. “Some women also described sleeping in cramped rooms, in some cases on the floor or without air conditioning.”

Forty women reportedly said they had suffered verbal and physical abuse such as degrading treatment, shouting and insults. Another 15 women said they faced physical abuse at the hands of their employers or family members, including spitting, beating, kicking, punching and hair-pulling. As many as five women had been sexually abused by their employers or visiting relatives. Most women felt they could not complain to the police for fear of retaliation by their employers.

The rights group notes that Qatar has utterly failed to hold abusive employers to account.

As a party to various international treaties prohibiting human rights abuses, Qatar is obliged to protect all workers and to provide remedies when those rights are violated. “We are calling on the Qatari authorities to take concrete steps to ensure full implementation of the law, establish strict inspection mechanisms, and take serious actions against abusive employers,” Cockburn said.

Qatar has utterly failed to hold abusive employers to account, which means there is little to deter future abuses. Practices such as passport confiscation and unpaid wages, which indicate forced labour, are not being automatically investigated, and rarely face consequences even when they refuse to hand passports over or pay dues, the report reads.

Prior to 2018 domestic workers had no access to grievance mechanisms, but when Qatar established the Committees for the Settlement of Labour Disputes, they were finally allowed to submit complaints to these tribunals. However, the process remains beset with delays and other issues. More than half the women AI spoke to reported delayed or unpaid wages, but the very few who felt able to submit claims to the Committees found the process slow and stressful.

One major flaw in the system is that domestic workers risk losing their legal status, income and a place to stay while their complaints are processed. They need a safe refuge and income to support themselves during the process; however, with a government-run shelter not fully operational, complaining at the Committees is not a viable option for most women, it adds.

AI condemns enforced eviction of indigenous Chepang families by Chitwan National Park

Amnesty International Nepal (AI-Nepal) has condemned the forcible eviction of indigenous Chepang families from their settlement by the Chitwan National Park authority on Saturday.
Issuing a press note today, the human rights group has also asked the authorities concerned to stop enforced eviction of indigenous Chepang people from their settlements and ensure those involved in destroying their houses are held accountable.
On Saturday, workers from the Chitwan National Park set two houses ablaze and destroyed eight others using elephants with the intention of evicting the Chepang families, who have been living in Kusumkhola, an area that falls under the park’s territory. Ten families were rendered homeless in the incident. They also lost their identification documents, money and other possessions in the incident.
The park’s move to evict the landless Chepang families by means of arson and vandalism, especially when the country is dealing with the coronavirus pandemic and the monsoon-related disasters, has drawn widespread criticism, the press note reads, adding that this is the second attack on the indigenous people perpetrated in the span of two months. In June, according to AI, the Bardiya National Park authority had attempted to forcibly evict members of the landless Tharu community from their settlements.
“Forcing anyone from their homes is an act of cruelty,” director of Amnesty International Nepal Nirajan Thapaliya, said, adding that to do so with the use of arson and charging elephants, risking lives and destroying the few possessions of an already marginalised community, is unconscionable and a human rights violation. “The Chepang community must be protected.”
Any further attempts to force them out of their homes must be stopped, he said, adding, “The people who have been forcibly evicted must be given effective remedy, including adequate alternative housing and compensation.”
Furthermore, the perpetrators responsible for these forced evictions should be held accountable for their actions, the AI press note reads.
The members of the Chepang community, who lost their homes are now in temporary accommodation in a school hostel nearby, and fear that other members of their community living near the Chitwan National Park could also suffer the same fate, the press note reads.
Indigenous Chepang communities depend on subsistence farming, without having access to their own land. Nepal’s laws, which fail to meet international standards, currently only protect people living ‘on land that they own’ and fail to ensure adequate safeguards against forced evictions of people, who do not have ownership titles.
“No one should be subjected to forced evictions,” Thapaliya said, adding that it is appalling that during a pandemic and ongoing rainy season, when having a home is critical to keeping oneself safe, Nepal’s authorities have chosen to dispossess some of the most marginalised people and make them homeless.”

Health workers silenced, exposed and attacked globally

Governments must be held accountable for the deaths of health and essential workers who they have failed to protect from Covid-19, Amnesty International (AI) said today, as it released a new report documenting the experiences of health workers around the world.
The organisation’s analysis of available data has revealed that more than 3000 health workers are known to have died from Covid-19 worldwide - a figure which is likely to be a significant underestimate.
Alarmingly, Amnesty International documented cases, where health workers who raise safety concerns in the context of the Covid-19 response have faced retaliation, ranging from arrest and detention to threats and dismissal.
“With the Covid-19 pandemic still accelerating around the world, we are urging governments to start taking health and essential workers’ lives seriously,” Amnesty International’s Researcher and Advisor on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Sanhita Ambast said, adding that countries yet to see the worst of the pandemic must not repeat the mistakes of governments, whose failure to protect workers’ rights has had devastating consequences. “It is especially disturbing to see that some governments are punishing workers who voice their concerns about working conditions that may threaten their lives.”
Health workers on the frontline are the first to know, if government policy is not working, and authorities who silence them cannot seriously claim to be prioritising public health, Ambast added.
There is currently no systematic global tracking of how many health and essential workers have died after contracting Covid-19. However, Amnesty International has collated and analysed a wide range of available data that shows that over 3000 health workers are known to have died after contracting Covid-19 in 79 countries around the world.
According to Amnesty International’s monitoring, the countries with the highest numbers of health worker deaths thus far include the USA (507), Russia (545), UK (540, including 262 social care workers), Brazil (351), Mexico (248), Italy (188), Egypt (111), Iran (91), Ecuador (82) and Spain (63).
The overall figure is likely to be a significant underestimate due to under-reporting, while accurate comparisons across countries are difficult due to differences in counting. For example, France has collected data from just some of its hospitals and health centres, while figures of deceased health workers provided by health associations in Egypt and Russia have been contested by their governments.
Health workers reported serious shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) in nearly all of the 63 countries and territories surveyed by Amnesty International. This includes countries, which may yet see the worst of the pandemic, such as India and Brazil and several countries across Africa. A doctor working in Mexico City told Amnesty International that doctors were spending about 12 per cent of their monthly salaries buying their own PPE.
In addition to a global shortage of supply, trade restrictions may have aggravated this problem. In June, some 56 countries and two trade blocs – the European Union and the Eurasian Economic Union – had put in place measures to either ban or restrict the export of some, or all, forms of PPE or its components.
“While states must ensure there is sufficient PPE for workers within their territories, trade restrictions risk exacerbating shortages in countries that are dependent on imports,” Sanhita Ambast said, adding that the Covid-19 pandemic is a global problem that requires global cooperation.
In at least 31 of the countries surveyed by Amnesty International, researchers recorded reports of strikes, threatened strikes, or protests, by health and essential workers as a result of unsafe working conditions. In many countries, such actions were met with reprisals from authorities.
“Health and essential workers have a right to raise their voices against unfair treatment,” said Sanhita Ambast.
In addition to unsafe working conditions, Amnesty International has documented how some health and essential workers are being unfairly paid or in some cases not paid at all.
Likewise, Amnesty International documented several cases where health and essential workers experienced stigma and violence because of their jobs. For example, a nurse in Mexico was reportedly drenched with chlorine while walking on the street, and in the Philippines, attackers poured bleach in the face of a hospital utility worker.
These incidents point to a climate of misinformation and stigma and underscore the importance of governments providing accurate and accessible information on the spread of Covid-19.

Supreme Court’s decision reaffirms the need to amend transitional justice law

The decision by Nepal's Supreme Court to reject a petition by the government asking that it reviews its 2015 ruling against amnesties for grave conflict-era crimes is an important step in securing truth, justice and reparations for the thousands of victims of the country’s decade-long conflict, Amnesty International, TRIAL International, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), and Human Rights Watch said today.
The armed conflict between Maoist and government forces ended in 2006, but victims of serious abuses by both sides are still awaiting justice, accountability and reparations. The four organisations called upon the government to revise the 2014 Transitional Justice Act and ensure its implementation in accordance with the Supreme Court’s judgments, so as to assure access to justice for the victims of conflict-era abuses.
Nepal’s transitional justice law, which was passed by Parliament in April 2014, established a Truth and Reconciliation Commission and a Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons, the joint press note reads, adding that it, however, contained provisions that could allow for amnesties even for crimes such as torture, including rape and other sexual violence and ill-treatment and enforced disappearance. “On February 26, 2015, the Supreme Court struck down the amnesty provisions and ordered the act to be amended accordingly.”
However, the government immediately petitioned to overturn the ruling. That petition was rejected by the court on April 27, 2020.
“With the Supreme Court’s decision, there can be no further excuse for government backsliding on ensuring truth, justice, reparations and guarantees of non-recurrence,” South Asia Director at Amnesty International Biraj Patnaik said, adding that the government should immediately amend the Enforced Disappearances Enquiry, Truth and Reconciliation Commission Act, 2014 in line with the Supreme Court’s orders and its own international obligations.
With its latest ruling the Supreme Court has upheld the principle that there can be no amnesties for those suspected of criminal responsibility for crimes under international law and human rights violations. More than 13 years since the Comprehensive Peace Agreement of November 2006 promised justice to the victims, no one has been held accountable for any conflict-era crimes.
“The request filed by the Nepal government to review the decision of the Supreme Court was another attempt to evade the real issue: accountability for mass human rights violations,” the head of Nepal Programme at TRIAL International Cristina Cariello said, adding that they were delighted that the Supreme Court held its ground and reaffirmed the importance of fair and efficient transitional justice mechanisms.
Amnesty International, the International Commission of Jurists, Human Rights Watch and TRIAL International have repeatedly expressed concerns about the faltering transitional justice process. Besides the failure to amend the law to uphold basic principles of justice, there have been long delays and repeated political interference in appointments to the two transitional justice commissions.
“Over the past decade, the Supreme Court of Nepal has produced some of the most human rights compliant jurisprudence in South Asia,” ICJ Asia Pacific director Frederick Rawski  said, adding that the petition cynically sought to have the Court undermine its own judgement, so that the government could sidestep its responsibility to provide accountability for conflict-related human rights violations. “The government has no excuse for not immediately amending the transitional justice legal framework so that it is consistent with the Court’s jurisprudence and Nepal’s international legal obligations.”
An effective transitional justice system requires strong legal foundations consistent with international law and standards, and the political will to address the demands of victims of the conflict, the organisations said.
“When Nepal stood for election to the United Nations Human Rights Council the government promised to uphold its human rights obligations, but 3 years later, as it seeks re-election, there has been nothing but impunity and evasion on transitional justice,” South Asia director at Human Rights Watch Meenakshi Ganguly said, adding that these are crimes under international law, subject to universal jurisdiction, and if justice is denied at home victims may take their cases abroad.

AI charges Qatar for illegally expelling migrant workers

After Qatari authorities rounded up and expelled dozens of migrant workers after telling them they were being taken to be tested for Covid-19, Amnesty International (AI) has called on to ensure that any worker detained and threatened with expulsion is informed of the reasons and allowed to challenge them. “Qatar should also ensure effective remedy and reparation for any worker, whose rights have been violated,” the AI press note recommends, adding that the Qatari authorities must also ensure all migrant workers’ right to health is fully protected during the Covid-19 crisis.

The AI interviewed 20 men from Nepal, who were apprehended by Qatari police, alongside hundreds of others, in March, the press note reads, adding that the police told most of the men that they were going to be tested for Covid-19 and will be returned to their accommodation afterwards. “Instead, they were taken to detention centres and held in appalling conditions for several days, before being sent to Nepal.”

“None of the men we spoke to had received any explanation for why they were treated this way, nor were they able to challenge their detention or expulsion,” Amnesty International’s (AI) deputy director of Global Issues Steve Cockburn said, adding that after spending days in inhumane detention conditions, many were not even given the chance to collect their belongings before they were put on planes to Nepal. “It is disturbing that the Qatari authorities appear to have used the pandemic as a smokescreen for further abuses against migrant workers, many of whom feel police misled them by saying that they were to be ‘tested’.”

Covid-19 is no excuse for arbitrarily rounding people up, he added.

“The authorities must provide reparations for the way that these men have been treated, and consider allowing those who have been expelled to return to Qatar if they so wish,” he said, “The men’s employers must also urgently pay the salary and employment benefits they are owed.”

On March 12-13, hundreds of migrant workers were rounded up and detained by police in parts of Doha including the Industrial Area, Barwa City, and Labour City, the TI press note reads, adding that they were apprehended whilst away from their accommodation, carrying out errands or shopping for groceries.

Some workers said the police specifically told them that they were being taken to be tested for Covid-19, and would be brought back to their accommodation later. Other workers said the police spoke to them in Arabic and the only word they could understand was ‘Corona’.

One man told Amnesty International, “We were asked to stop to test for the virus. Police told us that the doctor would come and check the virus. But they lied to us.”

The men were then crammed on to buses, and taken to a detention facility in the Industrial Area, where their documents and mobile phones were confiscated, before having their photographs and fingerprints taken, the AI press note further reads, adding that the workers were detained in inhumane conditions alongside scores of other people from various countries. “They were held in overcrowded cells without beds or bedding, and not given enough food or water.”

One Nepali man told AI: “The jail was full of people. We were given one piece of bread each day, which was not enough. All the people were fed in a group, with food lying on plastic on the floor. Some were not able to snatch the food because of the crowd.”

Out of the 20 interviewed, only three said they had their temperature checked while they were in the detention facility.

While they were in detention, the men Amnesty International interviewed were told they were being expelled, with some only learning about it while being taken to the airport. Some were expelled on March 15, and others on March 19. None were able to challenge their detention or expulsion.

Some were given just a few minutes to pack their belongings, while others were not given the chance to collect anything at all. One man said, “I was handcuffed and treated like a criminal. I was taken to my camp to collect belongings, but how could I collect and pack the luggage since my hands were chained?”

Most workers said they had their temperatures taken at Hamad International Airport before boarding their flights, and again upon landing in Kathmandu.

Some said the police threatened to bring criminal charges against them and keep them in the detention facility longer if they complained or tried to challenge the situation, the press note reads.

Of the 20 people interviewed, only two said they have been contacted by the companies they worked for, offering to pay their salaries. One man said he was given cash by his company whilst in detention, but a police officer took it for ‘safekeeping’ and failed to return it. The other man said his company asked him to open a bank account to send him his wages.

All of the workers left Qatar without receiving their owed salary and end-of-service benefits, a particular concern as many will have spent huge sums on securing jobs in Qatar and may well be paying back high-interest loans.

One man said, “It is difficult now. My children do not have clothes, it is tough to feed them.” Another said he was being threatened by a moneylender and was struggling to support his five children.

In response to Amnesty International’s evidence, the Qatari government said that while inspecting the Industrial Area as part of the Covid-19 response, “officials uncovered individuals engaged in illegal and illicit activity. This included the manufacture and sale of banned and prohibited substances, along with the sale of dangerous food goods that could seriously threaten the health of people if consumed”.

However, 18 of those interviewed by AI said they were not aware of any charges or accusations brought against them. Two others said that a fellow detainee who spoke Arabic told them that they were accused of supplying alcohol. Neither the police nor any officials informed them of such charges, which they strongly denied to AI.

AI reviewed documents in Arabic that were given to the men, which do not suggest they were charged with any criminal offence. In any event, none of the men interviewed were allowed to challenge the legality of their detention and eventual expulsion, as required under international human rights law.

Amnesty International asks government to protect migrant workers from ‘false promises’

Amnesty International (AI) has blamed some rogue recruitment agencies for trafficking Nepalis for exploitation and forced labour in the Gulf States and Malaysia.
The report, 'False Promises: Exploitation and forced labour of Nepalese migrant workers' published here today by the Amnesty International, also called on the government to improve protection of its migrant workers.
The migrant workers are forced to accept lower salary and even change of job from what they were promised due to exploitations of the agents, said researcher of Asia-Pacific Migrants' Rights and the author of the report Norma Kang Muico. However, some 300,000 migrant workers have paid $710,000 the recruitment agencies in the fiscal year 2008-09, she said, adding that Nepalis seek a better life abroad but fail before they even leave home, as recruitment agents – who earn huge profits – deceive them regarding their terms of contract, which is a key element in trafficking. “By the time they find out the true nature of their work, many are already trapped, saddled with large loans from private lenders with annual interest rates of up to 60 per cent."
Recruitment agencies charge an average Rs 100,000 ($1,400) for their services, three times the average annual income in Nepal, according to the report. "Being burdened with large loans and no alternative way of repaying them leaves migrant workers highly vulnerable to exploitation. The take loan at the rate of 35 per cent interest, which is more than double the bank and financial institutions rate."
The prospective migrants, who take out large loans to pay recruitment fees to secure a job overseas, unaware that recruitment agencies are deceiving them about the work, pay and conditions they are signing up to, said the report of Amnesty International that interviewed nearly 150 migrant workers and found that 90 per cent had been deceived by recruitment agencies regarding their employment contract.
However, president of Foreign Employment Association Nepal Prem Bahadur Katuwal rejected the blame and said that they have been regulated and monitored by the law.
Similarly, director general of Department of Foreign Employment Purna Chandra Bhattarai also expressed government reservation on some of the data of the report.Amnesty International documented cases where migrants were also beaten, threatened and had their freedom of movement restricted by employers in destination countries. Migrants facing exploitation or forced labour who sought assistance from Nepalis recruitment agencies or the government authorities received little support.
The report said that recruitment agencies even endorsed employers’ common practice of confiscating passports, which facilitates abuse. "Migrant women face restrictions to working abroad which increase their vulnerability," Muico said, adding that intermittent bans on domestic work and a requirement to seek family permission prior to migrating, force women to migrate through irregular channels or become ‘undocumented’.
But Bhattarai said that the legal restriction in the destination countries are more stringent than in Nepal and unless the international organisations force the destination countries to abide by the international human rights principle, the problem could not be solve.
Amnesty International interviewed migrant domestics, who had worked 21 hours per day, were not allowed to leave the house and were sexually abused by their employers. “The government must end discriminatory practices that force women migrants underground and leave them at greater risk of exploitation, without the protections available to regular migrants,” Muico added.
Nepal’s Foreign Employment Act 2007 is supposed to provide protection for migrant workers. It has directed recruitment agencies to provide migrant workers with a copy of their contract in advance and guards against excessive fees for recruitment services. It also allows for punishment of recruitment agents that fail to abide by terms of contract.
But Amnesty International’s research found evidence of violations of the law by recruitment agencies, including failure to provide contracts, changing terms and conditions and overcharging for services. But the government is failing to enforce the legislation, and no recruitment agency has been punished.
Migrant workers also have rights under the Act to compensation when their terms and conditions have not been met, yet few are aware of existing mechanisms for complaint and redress.Almost 20 per cent equal of GDP in 2010-11 came from remittances from migrants, who also provide for the needs of their own families. Official figures show that the number of Nepalis migrating abroad has increased five-fold since 2000 and that Qatar is the largest employer of Nepali migrant workers, largely due to construction ahead of the World Cup in 2022.
"If the government prioritises safe migration, it will benefit hundreds of thousands and their families each year,” Muico said, adding that it is imperative that the government acts to protect its citizens abroad which can also benefit Nepal’s economy.
The government must end impunity for rogue recruitment agencies and fully enforce the Foreign Employment Act, the report said.Amnesty International also called on the government to do more to ensure that compensation mechanisms are accessible and effective. "Many migrant workers are in the dark about their rights and don’t know who they can turn to for help. "The authorities must ensure those working abroad and their families are properly informed about the migration process,” she said.
Between September 2010 and May 2011, Amnesty International interviewed 149 returned or prospective migrant workers and met seven recruitment agencies and numerous government officials. Official figures show 294,094 Nepalis migrated abroad for work in 2010, compared with 55,025 in 2000. The majority go to Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE to work in construction, manufacturing and domestic work.