UN’s Labour Organization to probe into Qatar’s violations

CAIRO – 28 September 2017: International Labour Organization (ILO) of the United Nations will launch, next November, an investigation into Qatar’s violations concerning migrant workers.

In March 2016, a Nepali migrant construction employee who was among workers building stadiums for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, was fired, according to Daily Mail, after he complained to a delegation from the ILO during its visit to Qatar, that they weren’t paid their salaries and that the authorities have illegally confiscated their passports, “The story wasn’t allowed to be published before this day”.

Corinne Vargha, Director of the International Labour Standards Department at the ILO said that the issue has been already discussed as a complaint against Qatar for going against joint agreements.

According to CNN, the Qatari government announced in 2013 that 520 migrant workers died in 2012 with 385 of them from unexplained causes. “Qatar needs to reveal the causes of the worker deaths that could be related to heat and work on ending heat risks to workers”, said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.

Eight hundred thousand migrant workers in Qatar are involved in construction projects, representing 40 percent of the migrant workers there, according to HRW report.