Qatar needs genuine labour reforms

Since being awarded the 2022 FIFA World Cup, Qatar has faced increased scrutiny over its record on migrant workers’ rights. With two years to go until kick-off, Qatar’s progress on reforming its labour system is still lagging behind. 

The reality for many migrant workers will remain harsh unless further action is taken to guarantee wages, ensure access to justice, and protect domestic workers from exploitation.

Positive reforms have often been undermined by weak implementation and an unwillingness to hold abusive employers to account. Inspection systems are inadequate to detect abuse, and it remains challenging for workers to lodge complaints without risking their income and legal status. Qatar needs to do much more to ensure legislation has a tangible impact on people’s lives.

Domestic workers in Qatar continue to work around 16 hours a day with no day off, despite the introduction of a law stipulating a ten-hour limit and a weekly rest day. Women are suffering horrendous verbal and physical abuse, and none had seen their employers held to account.

Around 100 migrant workers employed on a construction project for a World Cup stadium worked for up to seven months without pay, despite the authorities being aware of the issues for nearly a year. 

Qatar needs to better implement current reforms and introduce further ones, strengthen inspection mechanisms to quickly detect and stop abuses, improve workers’ ability to access justice and remedy, end the culture of impunity for abusive employers, and respect the right of migrant workers to form trade unions. It should ensure a particular focus on strengthening protections for domestic workers, who have so far been left behind by many of the promised reforms.

Football associations should call on FIFA to use its voice, privately and publicly, to urge the Qatar government to fulfil its programme of labour reforms before the World Cup kicks off.