Qatar's migrant workers in death camps

Despite Qatar passing laws aimed at safeguarding the rights of migrant workers – who make up about 90 per cent of the population on the small peninsular nation – the rules are not being followed. Companies large and small and across industries are not complying with the rules. 

The Covid-19 pandemic left hundreds of thousands of migrant workers in Qatar extremely vulnerable as companies withheld pay, stopped providing basic necessities and dismissed workers with little warning. 

Researchers interviewed dozens of workers from companies across the country who said they were fired but had not received their end-of-service payout. Workers were made homeless as businesses closed during the lockdown.

Migrant workers in labor camps went without food for periods of time even though authorities said they were distributing provisions and saying that companies were still required to provide food even if staff were not working as a result of the lockdown.

Qatar recorded 138,000 cases of Covid-19, 237 deaths and has one of the highest rates of infection per capita anywhere in the world. The country has witnessed significant increases in redundancies, terminations and salary cuts as economy was hit by lockdowns and a drop in spending because of the virus.