Lalibela employees also said they had no electricity at the lodging the company provided from the end of August to the end of October 2020, when the government intervened. The Communications Office confirmed to Human Rights Watch that in October, the owner provided them with documentation “to show that all utility bills have now been paid.” Without Qatar ID cards, the workers have been unable to submit any official complaints of wage delays to the police or Labor Ministry. “We are scared to even leave our accommodation because we don’t have ID cards,” said an employee who doesn’t leave their lodgings except to go to work. “The police can arrest us for not having cards, even though it is not our fault.” The employees said they had telephoned the Kenyan and Ugandan embassies to ask how they can change employers, but the embassies told them they cannot proceed without ID cards. Human Rights Watch wrote to the Qatari government to inform them of the abuses of Lalibela employees. The Communications Office responded on October 27, stating that the Labor Ministry had opened an investigation into Lalibela about “salary deduction and delayed salary payments affecting some of the company’s workers.” The ministry then suspended the company and referred it to the judicial authorities for legal proceedings. The Communications Office said that the owner of the company has “pledged to settle all unpaid salaries within the next month” and the Labor Ministry is following up with them on a daily basis. The statement said that Lalibela had suspended its activities due to Covid-19 and that the company and the employees agreed in writing to temporarily reduce monthly salaries. The workers Human Rights Watch spoke to at Lalibela say they have not agreed to anything about salary reduction in writing. While the government has said that workers at both companies, even those with expired ID cards, are free to change jobs, they did not offer a response about how the workers at Lalibela are meant to continue with their current jobs, or search for another, without ever receiving ID cards, health cards, and ATM cards from their employer. Worker’s Support and Insurance Fund Earlier in 2020, the Qatari authorities stated that the Workers’ Support and Insurance Fund, created in 2018 and meant to support workers who have experienced labor abuse, is fully operational and had so far disbursed 14 million Qatari riyals ($3.85 million) in financial relief to workers. Under the law establishing the fund, it is to provide relief for workers who have won their cases at the Labor Dispute Resolution Committees but whose employers have failed to pay them. For a worker to access the fund, the labor court must first issue a ruling against the company, then submit an enforcement request to the Ruling Enforcement Office. At this stage, if the company is unable to pay its workers, then a settlement request is submitted to the fund.