Qatar’s inhumane practices against workers condemned

Chairman of the Executive Council of the Bahrain Free Labour Unions Federation (Al Hurr), Yaqoob Yusef Mohammed, has condemned the State of Qatar’s inhumane practices against hundreds of thousands of Asian and African workers who are exploited and living in precarious conditions in both workplaces and accommodation.

Mr Yaqoob called for launching an international investigation, under the supervision of the Arab Labour Organisation (ALO), the International Labour Arab Organisation (ILO), as well as international human rights organisations, to force Doha to adhere to transparency in the file of construction workers, an issue, he said, that has become exposed at the international level without any effective accountability.

Al Hurr chief stressed that labour strikes, protests, deaths, and the continued failure of the Qatari government to ensure the rights of foreign workers on its territory uncover the ‘real and ugly face of the Qatari regime’ which is trying to exploit the organisation of the 2022 World Cup, to obscure the violations of foreign workers’ rights and humanity to a level that bears the hallmark of ‘collective crimes’.

He emphasised that Al Hurr joins the international human rights organisations and regional and international trade unions, which have condemned the exploitation of foreign workers’ need and poverty to achieve gains on the corpses of victims, in supporting those whose minimum basic requirements have not been guaranteed by the Qatari Judiciary.