Friday, 17 May, 2024
By: Yash Gupte
Many international human rights organisations and different countries around the world have accused Qatar of gross human rights violations. Image Source: IANS
Qatar heavily depends on migrant workers, mainly from South Asian nations for the development of its infrastructure, yet the workers are deprived of their legal and basic human rights.
Qatar, the football world cup host has come under the spotlight after recent reports of the human rights and labour rights violations during its world cup preparations. Many international human rights organisations and different countries around the world have accused Qatar of gross human rights violations. Recently, even the former head of International Federation of Association of Football (FIFA), Sepp Blatter said that making Qatar a world cup host was a mistake. The Australian team recently released a video condemning Qatar for human rights violations. Not only by human rights organisations and countries, but Qatar has been also facing criticism from football fans around the world. Recently, fans at a Dortmund match in Germany unravelled a massive banner which read ‘Boycott Qatar 2022.’ Pop star Dua Lipa also refused to perform at the opening ceremony of FIFA 2022 and said that she will visit Qatar only when it upholds the basic human rights.
Why Qatar has been accused of human rights and labour rights violations?
According to various non-governmental human rights organisations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, labour rights in Qatar have always remained a concern. Migrant labourers in Qatar tend to face discrimination at the work place and they are even pushed in to forced labour. Inhumane living and working conditions exist for certain migrant labourers in Qatar. Thousands of people endure daily hardships like long hours in the scorching heat, low pay, and filthy dorms, yet they are unable to leave the country without an exit visa. Qatar heavily depends on migrant workers, mainly from South Asian nations for the development of its infrastructure, yet the workers are deprived of their legal and basic human rights.
Different reports noted that thousands of migrant workers have died in Qatar since it won the right to host the FIFA World Cup 2022, 10 years ago. According to media reports, data from India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka revealed that there were 5,927 deaths of migrant workers in Qatar from 2010- 2020.
Source: Media Reports
The above chart shows that majority of the workers who died in Qatar were from India. Many Indians, particularly from the southern states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu migrate to Gulf nations in search of better job opportunities. But reports reveal that they are subjected to inhumane work conditions. Despite of bilateral talks between New Delhi and Doha and the latter’s assurance of protection of Indian labourers, the data shows that there has been no significant improvement in efforts taken by Qatar in the protection of its work force.
May Romanos, Gulf researcher for Amnesty International said that “there is a lack of transparency surrounding the death of migrant workers and there is a need for Qatar to strengthen its occupational health and safety standards.”
Qatar’s poor human rights record
Qatar has been accused of human rights violations from time to time by various human rights organisations due to its poor record of human rights and its ranking on different human rights parameters.
Qatar was ranked at 119th position on the World Press Freedom Index 2022 with a score of 49.3. The world freedom index assess the level of freedom available to media in 180 countries around the world. The Index’s rankings are based on a score ranging from 0 to 100 that is assigned to each country or territory, with 100 being the best possible score (the highest possible level of press freedom) and 0 the worst.
Amnesty International’s 2021-22 report shows the condition of journalists and media in Qatar. Two Norwegian journalists who were investigating the plight of migrant workers in November 2021 were taken into custody on suspicion of trespassing and filming on private property, charges they vigorously denied. Their reporting was scrutinised, and all of their equipment was taken away. After being held for 36 hours without being charged, they were freed. The two journalists were scheduled to speak with Abdullah Ibhais, the former director of communications for Qatar's 2022 World Cup organisers, earlier in their trip, but he was detained on November 15 only hours before the conversation. His arbitrary detention occurred when he was filing an appeal against a five-year jail term that had been issued following an unfair trial based on a "confession" that had been coerced out of him and made without the presence of a counsel.
This shows the arbitrary actions taken by the Qatari authorities. The above mentioned incident also highlights the denial of basic rights to journalists in Qatar.
According to the Freedom in the World report 2022 released by Freedom House, Qatar had a score of 25 out of 100 marking the country ‘not free.’ Freedom in the World is an annual global report on political rights and civil liberties.
Qatar is ranked at 137th position with a score of 0.617 on Global Gender Cap Index 2022. The gender gap is the difference between women and men as reflected in social, political, intellectual, cultural, or economic attainments or attitudes. On a scale of 0 to 1, a score near 1 shows complete gender parity while a score near 0 shows total imparity.
According to Amnesty International, in both law and practice, prejudice against women still exists in Qatar. Women remain bound to their male guardian, typically their father, brother, grandfather, or uncle, or, in the case of married women, their spouse, under the guardianship system. Women in Qatar still require their guardian’s permission for key life decisions to marry, study abroad on government scholarships, work in many government jobs, travel abroad until certain ages, and receive some forms of reproductive healthcare.
The above data shows that Qatar has a diabolical human and labour rights record. While the fact that Qatar is only the second Asian country to host the world cup is appreciable, the semi-constitutional state’s continuous debacle on the human right front cannot be ignored. The fact that the gulf countries refuses to acknowledge the problem is also a cause of concern. Another issue is lack of official data from the government that further aggravates the problem.
