Qatari workers infected with scabies amid mounting violations

CAIRO – 31 August 2017: Forty-one national workers in some gas fields in Qatar were reportedly affected with scabies, according to Qatar Mubasher.

Recently, violations committed against both Qatari and foreign workers in various industries and fields surfaced, including non-payments or delays in payment, lack of proper health treatment, and incidents of passport confiscations of the expatriate workers.

The migrant-worker-dependent Qatar has recently passed a law entailing work hours for domestic workers should not exceed 10 hours a day and six days per week. American VOX news website described it as “ink on paper,” citing human rights defenders who contended that the new law is too broad and allows for further violations.

In this regard, Human Rights Watch researcher Rothna Begum told the Guardian “there’s no indication that domestic workers are exempt from Qatari regulations requiring foreign workers to get permission from their employers to switch jobs or leave the country.”

Back in 2014, the Guardian said in an investigative report that domestic employers were regularly vulnerable to “slave-like conditions” and were physically and sexually assaulted by their employers.

The report added that hundreds of Filipino workers turned to their embassy in Doha to complaint about the “intolerable wok conditions” they were living in. Human Rights Watch on Friday reiterated its condemnation of the blatant rights violations of the migrants working in the sites of the 2022 World Cup, which is scheduled to be held in Qatar.

In December 2010, the small emirate of Qatar won a bid to host the 2022 World Cup.

Qatar enforces a brutally exploitative “kafala” or sponsors law, the report stated, adding that amendments added to the law in 2016 made it more abusive. These amendments included “enabling employers to arbitrarily prevent their employees from leaving Qatar and returning to their home country.”