Qatar recently arrested at least 60 foreign workers protesting for months without pay and deported some of them, an advocacy group said, just three months before Doha is due to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
The move comes as Qatar faces intense international scrutiny over its employment practices ahead of the tournament. Like other Persian Gulf nations, Qatar relies heavily on foreign labor. The workers’ protest a week ago and Qatar’s reaction could further fuel concern.
The head of a labor consultancy investigating the incident said the arrests raise new questions about Qatar’s promises to improve treatment of workers. “Is this the reality that comes to light?” asked Mustafa Qadri, CEO of the Equidem Research group.
In a statement to The Associated Press on Sunday night, the Qatari government acknowledged that “several protesters were detained for violating public security laws.” He declined to provide information on arrests or deportations.
Video footage posted online showed some 60 workers angry about their salaries protesting on Aug. 14 outside of the Doha offices of Al Bandary International Group, a conglomerate that includes construction, real estate, hotels, food service and other ventures. Some of those demonstrating hadn’t received their salaries for as many as seven months, Equidem said.
The protesters blocked an intersection on Doha’s C Ring Road in front of the Al Shoumoukh Tower. The footage matched known details of the street, including it having several massive portraits of Qatar’s ruling emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, looking down on passers-by.
Al Bandary International Group, which is privately owned, did not respond to requests for comment and a telephone number registered in its name did not connect on multiple attempts to call it.
The Qatari government acknowledged that the firm hadn’t paid salaries and that its Labor Ministry would pay “all delayed salaries and benefits” to those affected.
“The company was already under investigation by the authorities for nonpayment of wages before the incident, and now further action is being taken after a deadline to settle outstanding salary payments was missed,” the government said.
Qadri said police later arrested the protesters and held them in a detention center where some described being in a stifling heat without air conditioning. Doha’s temperature this week reached around 41 degrees Celsius (105.8 degrees Fahrenheit).
Qadri described police telling those held that if they can strike in hot weather, they can sleep without air conditioning.
One detained worker who called Equidem from the detention center described seeing as many as 300 of his colleagues there from Bangladesh, Egypt, India, Nepal and the Philippines. He said some had been paid salaries after the protest while others hadn’t. His comments could not be corroborated.
Qatar, like other Gulf Arab nations, has in the past deported demonstrating foreign workers, and tied residency visas to employment. The right to form unions remains tightly controlled and available only to Qataris, as is the country’s limited right to assembly, according to the Washington-based advocacy group Freedom House.
Qatar, a small energy-rich nation on the Arabian Peninsula, is home to the state-funded Al Jazeera satellite news network. However, expression in the country remains strictly controlled. Last year, Qatar detained and then deported a Kenyan security guard who wrote and spoke publicly about the problems of the country’s migrant workforce.
Since FIFA awarded the tournament to Qatar in 2010, the country has taken some steps to review the country’s labor practices. That includes scrapping its so-called kafala employment system, which tied workers to their employers, who had to decide whether they could leave their jobs or even the country.
Qatar has also adopted a monthly minimum wage of 1,000 Qatari riyals ($275) for workers and mandatory food and housing allowances for employees who do not receive them directly from their employers.
Activists like Qadri have called on Doha to do more, particularly when it comes to ensuring workers receive their salaries on time and are protected from abusive employers.
“Have we all been duped by Qatar over the last several years?” Qadri asked, suggesting that recent reforms might have been “a cover” for authorities allowing prevailing labor practices to continue.
The World Cup will start this November in Qatar.