{"id":35705,"date":"2013-10-28T12:00:41","date_gmt":"2013-10-28T12:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=35705"},"modified":"2015-05-05T22:21:17","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T21:21:17","slug":"slavery-in-qatar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2013\/10\/slavery-in-qatar\/","title":{"rendered":"Slavery in Qatar"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"FIFA_flag\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Qatari-owned Al-Jazeera with its deep pockets is the envy of many journalists. It claims to “tell it like it is.” Just one little problem: Qatar. Qatar’s new emir, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, runs the show in his country. His father handed power over to him in June (some says it was a palace-coup led by Tamim’s mother) and his father gave Al-Jazeera pretty much a free hand to cover events, but only outside of Qatar. <\/i><\/p>\n

In the Arab world, if you want the dirt on what is happening in Qatar, you might instead tune in to al-Arabiya<\/i>.\u00a0 Al-Jazeera<\/i> spills the beans on Saudi Arabia, so Saudi-owned al-Arabiya<\/i> returns the favor.\u00a0 That is why al-Arabiya<\/i> ran a piece from Reuters about the conditions of Nepali workers in Qatar.<\/p>\n

Almost all of the Qatari labor force is made up of foreign workers.\u00a0 They are several times more numerous than the normal citizenry.\u00a0 These workers are employed under the kafala<\/i> system, under which they are indentured to a Qatari sponsor.\u00a0 A worker cannot leave the country or change employment, get a driver\u2019s license, or rent a home without the sponsor\u2019s consent.<\/p>\n

The Qatari Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Abdallah Saleh Al Khulaifi has acknowledged inadequate enforcement of laws and regulations on conditions of workers.\u00a0 The sponsor is prohibited from holding a passport after the worker has been cleared by Immigration.\u00a0 He is required to pay wages promptly, and hours of work in extreme heat are limited.\u00a0 Workers are to have access to drinking water and health care.\u00a0 He said that his ministry would be hiring more inspectors to enforce the rules and more interpreters to be able to communicate with the workers.<\/p>\n

Conditions of foreign workers have become an acute concern because Qatar is slated to be the venue for the 2020 world cup of soccer.<\/p>\n

Some critics contend that Qatar\u2019s treatment of foreign workers is so appalling that the venue should be shifted, especially since these workers are building the facilities for the games.<\/p>\n

Sharan Burrow, General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation, charged, \u201cForeign workers in Qatar are modern-day slaves to their local employers.\u00a0 The local Qatari owns you.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Reuters account spoke of withholding wages as well as passports, and work shifts which can be as long as 16 hours.\u00a0 A Guardian<\/i> article this month reported 70 Nepali construction workers having died since the beginning of last year.<\/p>\n

British Prime Minister David Cameron pointedly noted that there were no deaths in construction for the 2012 Olympics in London.<\/p>\n

According to Nepali Union officials, lack of safety equipment results in workers falling to their deaths.\u00a0 Burrow said, \u201cScores are dying from heat exhaustion and dehydration after 12-hour shifts in blazing heat, often during the night in squalid and cramped labor camps with no ventilation and appalling hygiene.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some 340,000 Nepalis work in Qatar.\u00a0 Their remittances make up more than 20% of Nepal\u2019s Gross Domestic Product.\u00a0 When it became known that Nepal\u2019s ambassador to Qatar, Maya Kumari Sharma, had referred to Qatar as \u201can open jail,\u201d the government, in response to Qatar\u2019s complaint, recalled her for her inappropriate remarks.\u00a0 Nepal\u2019s government is led by self-described Maoists, who apparently love those remittances.\u00a0 What would Karl Marx have said?<\/p>\n

Will FIFA (F\u00e9d\u00e9ration Internationale de Football Association) stick with Qatar as the site of the 2020 world cup? It shouldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 thecanadiancharger.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Almost all of the Qatari labor force is made up of foreign workers. These workers are indentured to a Qatari sponsor and cannot leave the country or change employment, get a driver\u2019s license, or rent a home without the sponsor\u2019s consent. Will FIFA stick with Qatar as the site of the 2020 world cup? It shouldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-focus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35705\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}