Qatar is “running out of time” to honour promised labour reforms before the 2022 World Cup, says Amnesty International.
Research by the human rights group found that the authorities in the Gulf state are “falling significantly short” in their efforts to protect the rights of two million migrant workers. Amnesty said “important steps” to improve workers’ rights had been passed since an agreement was signed with the United Nations’ International Labour Organisation (ILO) in 2017.
But in a 19-page report titled ‘Reality Check’, the watchdog warned that “much more needs to be done” and that workers were still being subject to “exploitation and abuse”.
In a statement, world football governing body FIFA said it “welcomes the important steps taken in recent months by the government of Qatar towards reforming its laws on the protection of workers’ rights”.
However, it added: “We share the view of Amnesty International that additional progress is needed for the full implementation of the commitments for comprehensive labour reform by the government of Qatar.”
The Qatari government said it “welcomes” the “continued interest and scrutiny” of its systems from Amnesty and claims it penalised or banned 11,994 companies in 2018 for violating labour laws.
A government statement read: “Far from seeing time as running out, the Government of the State of Qatar understands further change is needed and we remain committed to developing these changes as quickly as possible, while ensuring they are effective and appropriate for our labour market conditions.
“Practical, efficient and lasting change takes time and that is what we have committed to.”
In 2010, Qatar controversially beat rival bids from the United States, Australia, South Korea and Japan to host the tournament, with hundreds of thousands of construction workers arriving from overseas.
The country is building seven new stadia to stage the tournament which has been moved to winter to avoid the country’s extreme summer heat.
