"NHRC calls for soft stance on workers", 18 September 2015

Don’t catch workers who do not have identity (ID) cards or valid ID cards due to the fault of their employers, Qatar’s National Human Rights Committee (NHRC) has urged the Ministry of Interior. The rights body has also requested the Interior Ministry to transfer the sponsorship of workers who are barred from work or traveling overseas due to financial debt. “Also, please allow victims of the (illegal) visa trade and employees of blacklisted companies to change their sponsorship,” the NHRC has said. In a set of recommendations made to the interior ministry in its 2014 report on the human rights situation in the country, the NHRC said the detention centre must be expanded and healthcare facilities must be provided there. Deportation centre is where foreign workers being repatriated home are detained. The NHRC has also urged the ministry to regularise the visa status of “free and loose workers” (workers like masons, carpenters, plumbers and electricians, among others, who are not employed by any company although sponsored by them and are available for freelance work). And raids should be conducted on companies and if it is found that they have failed to get ID cards issued for their workers, such workers should be allowed to change their sponsorship, according to the rights panel...