22/04/2021 Salary Abuses Facing Migrant Workers Ahead of Qatar’s FIFA World Cup 2022 | HRW largely go unpunished, the kafala system continues to drive abuse, exploitation, and forced DONATE NOW Summary labor practices. Deceptive Recruitment Practices Leave Workers Indebted and Vulnerable The Qatari government had previously stated that the illegal yet pervasive issue of migrant workers’ paying their own recruitment fees is not a Qatari problem and is one for workers’ countries of origin to address. However, the profits are not limited to recruiters in countries of origin; Qatari companies, employers, and recruiters benefit when workers are forced to pay their own recruitment fees. Companies in Qatar increase their competitiveness by outsourcing the payment of recruitment fees to contractors and subcontractors, who eventually pass the buck to workers who end up paying their recruitment fees themselves. Thus, migrant workers like Henry, and 71 others in this report, told Human Rights Watch that they are already indebted when they arrive in Qatar, having paid between $693 to $2,613 in recruitment fees to secure such jobs. Ultimately, they found themselves compelled to work for months without pay, because they have no choice but to stay with only the promise of being paid. This indebtedness increases the ‘power’ of companies and employers over employees, making them even more likely to get away with abusing employees without accountability. Harmful Business Practices Punish Workers Most Some companies in Qatar deliberately withhold, delay, or deny workers’ wages for additional profits. But other companies, typically small and medium-sized enterprises in the construction industry where long and often complex subcontracting chains are the norm, may be unable to pay workers in full and on time because of payment disruptions higher up the chain. These disruptions can lead to insolvency and encourage the commonly practiced, yet unofficial, policy of paying onwards only when paid. Such problems are not unique to Qatar. But while many other countries have adopted policies and laws that aim to tackle the problem of unpaid wages for workers as a result of “pay when paid” policies, Qatar has yet to do so. Moreover, construction is the largest job sector in Qatar, and thousands of migrant workers have been left penniless due to subcontractors’ insolvency issues higher up the supply chain. Wage Protection System Not Worth the Name Wage abuses are amongst the most common and most devastating violations of migrant workers’ rights not just in Qatar, but across the Gulf region, where various iterations of the https://www.hrw.org/report/2020/08/24/how-can-we-work-without-wages/salary-abuses-facing-migrant-workers-ahead-qatars 5/62