Qatar, host of the 2022 soccer World Cup, has pledged a series of labor reforms in response to criticism of its treatment of migrants workers, but the promises must be backed by new laws and concrete action, human rights groups said...genuine commitment to reform can only be proved by legislation and strict implementation of new labor laws.

“This agreement laid out the pathway for reform but Qatar has to travel that pathway,” Fabien Goa, migrant researcher for Amnesty International, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Gulf labor rights researcher Mustafa Qadri, executive director of Equidem Research & Consulting, said enforcement was crucial. “Passing laws alone don’t really change anything. What we really need to see on the ground is actual change”.