Qatar expelled foreign workers claiming their unpaid wages
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With less than three months to go before the World Cup, Qatar has expelled dozens of foreign workers who dared to protest, a British NGO has said.
Qatar has expelled dozens of foreign workers who organized a rare demonstration to demand their unpaid wages, less than three months before the World Cup in the Gulf country, a British NGO said on Monday.
The authorities of Qatar, regularly criticized by international NGOs for the treatment of hundreds of thousands of workers from Asia in particular on the major construction sites of the World Cup-2022, confirmed the detention of demonstrators but refused to say whether some had been expelled.
During a protest on August 14, at least 60 workers – some of whom had not been paid for seven months – blocked traffic outside the Al Bandary company in Doha, Equidem, a consultancy organization, said in a statement. specialist in human rights and labor rights based in London.
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“We spoke to protesting workers and one who was deported to Nepal. We have confirmed that he has returned home, and that others from Nepal, Bangladesh, India, Egypt and the Philippines have also been deported.said Equidem executive director Mustafa Qadri.
The Qatari government said on Sunday that “a number of protesters had been arrested for violating public safety laws“.
“A minority of people who failed to protest peacefully and acted in violation of public safety laws face deportation by court order“, he added without giving details on the number of workers affected.
The Ministry of Labor said for its part that it paid the salaries of Al Bandary workers, without further details. He added that “measurementshad been taken against the company, which was already under investigation for non-payment of wages.
The World Cup begins in the small, wealthy gas state on November 20.
Human rights groups stepped up their campaigns ahead of the World Cup and called on FIFA to pay compensation to workers.
But Doha defends itself by stressing that it has taken measures to improve the conditions of foreign workers, by imposing a minimum wage and by prohibiting the omnipotence of certain employers who prevented their employees from leaving the country or changing jobs.
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