22/04/2021
Salary Abuses Facing Migrant Workers Ahead of Qatar’s FIFA World Cup 2022 | HRW
week before her return to the Philippines, she said her employer informed her he would not
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paying her what he owed her in end-of-service payments, and would use her first month’s
salary to buy her return flight ticket to the Philippines, instead of paying for the ticket himself
as promised in her contract.
Henry and Samantha’s stories illustrate the wage abuses employers afflict on migrant workers
in Qatar today. Qatar’s economy is reliant on some 2 million migrant workers - making up
around 95 per cent of its total labor force - who come from countries like India, Nepal, the
Philippines, Bangladesh, Kenya, and Uganda to seek better income opportunities. These
migrant workers are responsible for building the stadiums, transportation, and hotels for the
upcoming FIFA World Cup 2022, and they are almost solely responsible for building the
infrastructure and powering the service sector of the entire country. In exchange for this labor,
they are only guaranteed a minimum wage of 750 Qatari riyals ($206) per month, which, when
paid on time and in full, is barely enough for many workers to pay back recruitment debts,
support families back home, and afford basic needs while in Qatar.[3] On top of this,
employers’ wage abuses leave many in perilous circumstances.
Human Rights Watch spoke to 93 migrant workers working for 60 different employers and
companies between January 2019 and May 2020, all of whom reported some form of wage
abuse by their employer such as unpaid overtime, arbitrary deductions, delayed wages,
withholding of wages, unpaid wages, or inaccurate wages.
The findings in this report show that across Qatar, independent employers, as well as those
operating labor supply companies, frequently delay, withhold, or arbitrarily deduct workers’
wages. Employers often withhold contractually guaranteed overtime payments and end-of
https://www.hrw.org/report/2020/08/24/how-can-we-work-without-wages/salary-abuses-facing-migrant-workers-ahead-qatars
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