A labor rights body on Wednesday urged Qatari hotels, which recruit thousands of foreign workers for the World Cup, to avoid racism, overwork and unpaid wages.
Source: AFP
Qatar expects to welcome more than a million visitors during the four-week event, from November 21 to December 18, which will have a huge temporary workforce to help.
Equidem, a UK-based labor rights organization, said workers in the Gulf country have faced “serious labor exploitation and human rights violations.”
Qatar has faced widespread criticism over conditions for migrant workers.
The emirate insists it has made improvements in recent years, including a minimum wage and scrapping much of a contentious system that gives employers power over workers’ rights to change jobs or even leave the country.
FIFA said this week that Qatar applied an “unprecedented due diligence process to safeguard the rights and welfare of workers at 159 hotels, including all those that will host participating teams.”
According to Equidem, hotel workers, such as those in Bangladesh, told their researchers that they earn less than people in Arab countries for the same job.
The group noted that Kenyan security guards said they were pressured to work in extreme heat more than those of other nationalities.
Equidem reported that some employees said they were forced to work overtime without pay, “like robots,” and many received no wages or due compensation when they were laid off during the coronavirus pandemic.
The International Labor Organization also sought improvements, noting that 20 hotels have set up committees to resolve disputes, though it said more needs to be done.
