“Qatar migrant workers still face exploitation and harassment despite World Cup promises”

The exploitation and harassment of migrant workers in Qatar remains rife, despite promises the World Cup would transform their rights, i has learnt.

…Qatar is backtracking on the pledges it made, labourers have claimed. One trade unionist said workers faced “even more egregious treatment” now…

…migrant workers, speaking to i exclusively via union representatives more than half a year after the end of the World Cup, claimed that pay was still being withheld, workers were being arbitrarily deported and they were unable to move freely from job to job…

While the Qatari government insisted that hundreds of thousands of workers have changed jobs since the change in law...

“Before the World Cup there was no NOC; if you wanted to work for another company, you could go. But now that’s not possible,” said Aahil, a Bangladeshi worker and community organiser. “The companies have brought back, unofficially, the NOC…

Some community organisers said it was still common for employers to seize workers’ passports to prevent them from leaving the country…

Unions say Amin was arrested under a provision in the Penal Code of Qatar prescribing punishment against public disturbance and disorder, which they say was used against striking workers at Al Bandary engineering firm...

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