The shocking details of Amnesty International’s [AI] new report The Dark Side of Migration: Spotlight on Qatar’s construction sector ahead of the World Cup in 2022 will hopefully not only shine on Qatar but also Kuwait, the Emirates, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia as well where an Asian workforce is exploited by nothing else than modern day slavery to make these, well, sick societies running. The report is based on numerous interviews with migrant workers, employers and government officials and “documents a range of abuses against migrant workers. These include non-payment of wages, harsh and dangerous working conditions, and shocking standards of accommodation. Researchers [at AI] also met dozens of construction workers who were prevented from leaving the country for many months by their employers – leaving them trapped in Qatar with no way out.”

“The world’s spotlight will continue to shine on Qatar in the run-up to the 2022 World Cup offering the government a unique chance to demonstrate on a global stage that they are serious about their commitment to human rights and can act as a role model to the rest of the region,” said Salil Shetty, Secretary General of AI. FIFA, the association which organized the World Cup, its fig leave ethical committee and in particular its highly corrupt completely discredited and disingenuous president Sepp Blatter all still do not see a possibility of revocation.

Already in 2011 AI had documented “abusive practices by Nepalese recruitment agencies in its report False Promises: Exploitation and forced labour of Nepalese migrant workers. The report found that agencies were using deceptive practices to traffic migrant workers for exploitation and forced labour in the Gulf States and Malaysia, and called on the Nepalese government to improve protection of its migrant workers.”

18 November 2013 @ 8:35 am.

Last modified November 18, 2013.