Qatar rejects Amnesty International’s

criticism on winning World Cup bid By: LESLEY WALKER | December 2, 2015

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With reporting from Heba Fahmy

Qatar is “committed to protecting the workers” who are building its many

infrastructure projects and is making progress in terms of labor rights, the

government said in response to a new Amnesty International report that accused

the state of “rampant” abuse of low-income employees.

Today marks the fifth anniversary since Qatar was named as host city for the 2022

World Cup.

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world-cup-bid/

On the eve of that milestone, Amnesty issued an annual scorecard asserting that

authorities in Qatar “have done almost nothing effective to end chronic labor

exploitation” here. It also accused FIFA of being complicit in failing to make

material improvements to workers’ rights.

In response, Qatar’s Government Communications Office issued a statement last

night arguing that the report “does not accurately reflect the progress we have

made in reforming our labor system.”

It also claimed that Amnesty’s report did not compare Qatar’s developments to

other countries that have a similar majority-expat population:

“The Government feels that Amnesty’s reporting lacks context, as it does not

benchmark labor conditions in Qatar against labor conditions in other countries

facing similar challenges.

Qatar fully intends to meet the highest standards with regard to labor but for

reasons that are unclear, Amnesty International has provided no comparative

data on labor conditions in other countries employing large numbers of guest

workers to meet the demands of rapid growth and development,” the statement

said.

Worker reforms

Asserting its “appreciation” of its migrant workforce, the government office

maintained it had made a number of “significant (human rights) reforms” and that

the state is “committed to respecting both their labor rights and their human

rights.”

Residents line up at a bank to open accounts ahead of the WPS.

Among the examples of reforms cited by the government are the introduction of

the Wage Protection System, which requires companies to pay employees’ wages

directly into bank accounts.

The government also said there are “new laws” banning employers from

withholding their employees’ passports and from working during midday hours in

summer months.

However, these rules have been in place for a number of years, though workers

do regularly complain about the passport issue and have said the authorities do

not do enough to enforce the law.

Kafala

Amnesty also criticized Qatar for taking more than a year to introduce minor

reforms to its controversial kafala sponsorship system that aren’t expected to

take effect until next year.

“The reforms proposed by the government fail to tackle the central issues that

leave so many workers at the mercy of employers, yet even these changes have

been delayed,” Amnesty researcher Mustafa Qadri said.

However, the Qatar government office maintained that, despite criticism that the

new law doesn’t go far enough in tackling some of the issues around workers’

rights, “these new regulations mark the beginning of the end of the so-called

‘kafala’ laws in Qatar.”

The statement continued:

“Far from ‘tinkering on the edges’ of reform, Qatar has made, and will continue to

make changes in our laws that will help ensure that the rights of both workers

and their employers are respected.”

In a separate public announcement yesterday, the head of the local organizing

body for Qatar’s World Cup maintained that Qatar was making good progress in

its preparations to host the global event in seven years’ time.

Hassan Al Thawadi, secretary-general of theSupreme Committee for Delivery &

Legacy,reportedly said: “Our vision, our legacy continues to develop. The World

Cup will go down in history as being an outstanding one.”

Work is underway on six of what will be at least eight stadiums required for the

event, with the remodeled Khalifa international stadium in Aspire Zone set to be

the first facility to be completed next year.

The main contractor for Al Wakrah stadium, which was designed by British-Iraqi

architect Zaha Hadid, is set to be announced next week, Al Thawadi added.

FIFA response

The official also commented on the ongoing turmoil faced by football’s

international governing body FIFA, saying “we need a stable FIFA for the benefit

of the game. The new president, whoever it may be, should lead football and

work for the progress of the game.”

FIFA did not escape censure by Amnesty. In a statement, Qadri said yesterday:

“FIFA has played its part in this sorry performance. It knew there were labor rights

issues in Qatar.”

He added:

“FIFA has bent over backwards to make a Qatar World Cup work, even taking the

unprecedented step of moving the tournament from summer to winter. But apart

from occasional public statements the organization has not set any clear,

concrete agenda for how it will push Qatar to ensure migrant workers’ rights are

respected.”

In its own response to the report, FIFA said it has been working with Qatar

authorities, Amnesty and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) to

achieve “consistent and sustained implementation of fair working conditions on

FIFA World Cup construction sites as quickly as possible.”

While its focus remains on specific World Cup sites – the stadiums – FIFA added

that it continues to “urge” Qatar authorities to ensure basic workers’ standards

were also implemented country-wide.

It said it would put in place a “human rights due diligence procedure” for the

World Cup, but stopped short of giving any detail on what this would include or

how it would be enforced.

#WhenWeWon

Meanwhile, a new Twitter hashtag #ما ا_ل زن has been making (when we won) ف

the rounds this week. On it, many people have been expressing pride and joy that

the country is hosting the World Cup, while others are reminiscing about how the

felt and where they were when the news was announced five years ago.