US calls for Qatar to relax labour laws<\/a><\/p>\nUS EMBASSY officials are urging a \u201cliberalisation\u201d of the sponsorship law to combat forced labour and human trafficking violations within Qatar.
\nThe call comes amid increasing speculation regarding a draft law, currently awaiting approval, governing the entry and exit of foreigners, their residence and sponsorship.
\nThe US embassy\u2019s Charge d\u2019Affaires, Michael Ratney, said: \u201cTrafficking is a serious problem as many expatriate workers make arrangements to come and work in Qatar for a certain wage and a certain number of hours, but then often find themselves to be working double the hours for half the pay when they actually get here.
\n\u201cThe current sponsorship and labour laws mean that this practice is all too common, and we have urged the Qatari government to look into this.\u201d
\nA recent human rights report commissioned by the US State Department, covering countries to which America provides foreign assistance, made uncomfortable reading regarding the lives of some expatriate workers.
\nIt stated: \u201cMen and women from Africa, South Asia and the Middle East travel willingly to Qatar as labourers and domestic servants but often subsequently face conditions of forced labour and physical and sexual exploitation.
\n\u201cLegislation guiding the sponsorship of expatriate labourers created conditions constituting forced labour or slavery.
\n\u201cThe dependence of foreign labourers on their employer for residency rights and the inability to change employment or to travel without the sponsor\u2019s permission leaves them vulnerable to abuse and arrest.\u201d
\nThe report pointed the finger at individual employers, contractors and recruitment agencies for the violations, adding \u201cthere is no evidence of institutional involvement by government bodies or officials\u201d.
\nAt a press conference held to discuss the report yesterday, Ratney admitted that Qatar had made \u201csteady progress\u201d in its human rights record and hoped the country could lead the way for others to follow.
\nHe said: \u201cWith its strong leadership (Qatar) has the potential to set an example in the region.\u201d
\nAnd part of that example would be a \u201cliberalisation of the code that governs workers in Qatar\u201d.
\nAmendments to the current sponsorship law, insisted Ratney, would benefit not only the largely expatriate workforce but also result in increased competition to the benefit of all.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
\nThe US Department\u2019s human rights report on Qatar for the year 2007 was based on information received from a variety of sources, including governments and multilateral institutions, national and international non-governmental groups, academics, jurists, religious groups and the media.
\nRatney added that the Qatari authorities had also been extremely helpful in providing information.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I’ve decided to start posting news articles from the Gulf region, so that you know what’s going on here.\u00a0 These will range from weird and hilarious to governmental policy and everything in between.\u00a0 Here are a couple to start: TAMUQ career fair draws top firms TEXAS A&M Univer-sity at Qatar (TAMUQ) has hosted regional companies […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-announcements","category-in-the-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.totheeast.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.totheeast.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.totheeast.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.totheeast.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.totheeast.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.totheeast.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.totheeast.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.totheeast.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.totheeast.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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