Human rights reports expose Qatar’s human rights violations

Hossam al-Haddad

Qatar, which always raises the slogan of defending human rights only when it comes to the rights of terrorists that it sponsors, such that some researchers call it the Emirate of Terrorism, sheds arrows of hatred, violence and terrorism in the face of not only its regional surroundings but in most parts of the world. It is the first sponsor of groups of political violence, yet despite this, its media trumpet Al-Jazeera praises human rights until some human rights institutions revealed the ugly face of the emirate in the human rights file. Among these human rights institutions is the Maat Foundation for Peace, Development and Human Rights, which presented in July 2019 an intervention before the United Nations Human Rights Council, revealing the violations committed by the Qatari and Turkish regimes against foreign workers and refugees in both countries, within the framework of the 41st session of the Council.

The organization drew the attention of the Human Rights Council to the serious developments in the human rights situation in Qatar and Turkey, especially with regard to the conditions of foreign workers and refugees, which witness serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, as foreign workers live in Qatar under a system of exclusion and isolation without any protection of rights. People are forced to work for 14 hours a day under the scorching rays of the sun that reach 50 degrees Celsius.

For his part, the head of Maat Foundation, Ayman Aqeel, affirmed that the Qatari authorities practice all methods of slavery against foreign workers, who are subjected to racial discrimination, exploitation and abuse by employers, in addition to their stay in overcrowded camps in the middle of the desert that are not suitable as human housing.

He pointed out that the number of deaths among foreign workers related to the construction of World Cup facilities only has reached nearly 1,800, and that number is expected to increase by 7,000 workers by the time the World Cup 2022 begins.

In conclusion, Maat called for the need to intensify international efforts to ensure the rights of foreign workers and refugees in both Qatar and Turkey, and it called for an independent international investigation to be opened to examine the causes of deaths among foreign workers in Qatar.

There is another organization that Qatar considers to be one of the most neutral organizations in this file because it always defends the Brotherhood, the terrorist group sponsored by Qatar, until the organization in its global report condemned and exposed Qatar’s human rights violations on its territory, as Human Rights Watch confirmed that migrant workers, asylum seekers, stateless people, and women in Qatar remained vulnerable to abuse in 2019 despite new laws and regulations aimed at better protecting rights.

In its 30th edition, the 652-page World Report 2020, Human Rights Watch reviewed human rights practices in nearly 100 countries.

In October 2019, the government announced important reforms that allow migrant workers to change jobs and leave the country without their employer’s consent, which are key elements of the sponsorship system that binds migrant worker visas to their employers, and that has enabled workers’ abuse and exploitation.

The reforms were expected to be implemented this January; however, it appears that there are other elements of the sponsorship system that could leave employers some control over workers.

Michael Page, deputy director of the Middle East and North Africa division at Human Rights Watch, said, “The recent statements of labor reform in Qatar, if fully implemented, will indeed constitute an important step toward reforming the exploitative sponsorship system.”

Page added that Qatar passes these laws in a show-stopping manner, pointing out that the regulations designed to protect the rights of workers and refugees are like ink on paper, without effective implementation and strict enforcement.

He continued, “Qatar cannot to claim that it defends human rights while not respecting the suffering of societies, such as those whose nationalities have been revoked.”

In November 2019, Qatar entered the third and final year of its technical cooperation program with the International Labor Organization, which aims to broadly reform the conditions of migrant workers.

The government has introduced a number of reforms in the past three years, and although they are positive, they have not achieved much, and implementation has been uneven.

As of the end of 2019, the sponsorship system remained largely intact and continued to facilitate the abuse and exploitation of the country’s migrant workforce.

Qatar also expelled asylum seekers despite its asylum law in 2018, and entire families have been arbitrarily withdrawn from their nationality since 1996, deprived of basic human rights without clear means of restoring their revoked nationality.

The human rights report, which reveals Qatari human rights violations, added that stateless individuals from the Al-Ghufran tribe, from whom the Qatari authorities arbitrarily withdrew their nationality more than a decade ago, remained deprived of their rights to work, obtain health care, receive education, marry, create a family, and own property, as well as freedom of movement, and in 2019 Qatar did not commit to correcting their status.

The report indicated that throughout 2019, the Search and Follow-up Department of the Ministry of Interior repeatedly threatened two people with deportation for vague reasons, despite their declared desire to seek asylum under the 2018 law.

According to the human rights organization’s report, Qatari laws also still discriminate against women and intersex persons, and the country’s male guardianship system undermines women’s rights to make independent decisions regarding marriage and travel.