Migrant workers at a prominent Qatari trading and construction firm have not received their salaries for up to five months, Human Rights Watch said today. Workers at the Bin Omran Trading and Contracting (BOTC) company, which has multiple ongoing projects related to the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, have made numerous formal complaints to Qatari authorities without effect.

FIFA should immediately set up a system to investigate abuses against migrant workers in Qatar who are making the World Cup possible and provide compensation to workers who have experienced wage delays or theft. 

Human Rights Watch spoke to four BOTC employees who had not been paid for the last five months, and who have accumulated significant debt to meet their living expenses...

The employees interviewed said that the total size of BOTC’s workforce has declined in recent months as employees have left either because their contracts were completed or terminated or wage abuse. They said wages for the remaining workers have been delayed by two months in some cases and five months in others, in apparent violation of Qatar’s labor law, which requires employers to pay wages in full and on time...

Human Rights Watch also reviewed memos sent by BOTC management to employees asking them to keep working, despite the delayed and unpaid salaries, or to face further wage deductions. Under the International Labour Organization’s Forced Labour Convention No. 29, work is considered forced or compulsory labor when workers are forced to work under threat of any penalty, which can include withholding and nonpayment of wages...

...BOTC employees also said they had  lodged complaints about their delayed wages to the Labor Ministry, the Labor Court, the Qatari police, and the National Human Rights Commission in February, so far without effect...