Qatar cries foul over migrant workers mistreatment
A top Qatari official rejects complaints about the maltreatment of migrant laborers as a “dirty game” to disgrace the country, which is preparing to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
The claims by Abdullah bin Hamad al Attiyah, a former advisor to the Emir of Qatar and now president of the Administrative Control & Transparency Authority, come as human rights groups and trade unions have repeatedly expressed concern over abusing the rights of migrant workers responsible for constructing facilities in the oil-rich nation.
The Qatari government has admitted in a DLA Piper report that around 1,000 workers from Nepal, India and Bangladesh lost their lives in 2012 and 2013, while it is feared that many more could die due to the acceleration in construction of 2022 World Cup facilities in coming months.
In an interview with Sky News, Attiyah, however, rejected the criticisms directed at the country as “a big trick.”
“I think this is a big trick. People start talking about human rights, they just have a heightened agenda and they just try and use it against Qatar. This is what I call the dirty game,” he said.
Refraining from elaborating on the migrant working conditions in Qatar, he further said that the laborers “can buy their choice. No one forced them.”
Migrant workers account for nearly 75 percent of Qatar's tiny population of nearly 2.2 million, but many of them have been employed under the kafala system, which stipulates that laborers cannot change job or leave Qatar without permission from their sponsor.
Rejecting Attiyah's comments, James Lynch, Amnesty International’s researcher on migrants’ rights in the Persian Gulf, said, “It is very surprising to hear claims like this from a senior member of the Qatari government when we have been told in public several times that the Qatari government does accept there is a problem.”
He stressed that time is running out for the World Cup 2022 to be constructed “free of exploitation”, adding, “If you still have senior government ministers refusing to accept that there is a problem that does not bode well at all.”
The International Trade Union Confederation stated in June 2014 that up to 4,000 migrant workers could die in construction site accidents by 2022.
MR/NN
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