Qatar's construction sector is rife with abuse, Amnesty International (AI) has said in a report, The Dark Side of Migration. Amnesty said some of the abuses amounted to "forced labour".
Amnesty says migrant workers are often subjected to non-payment of wages, dangerous working conditions and squalid accommodation. The rights group said one manager had referred to workers as "animals".
The workers said they were "treated like cattle", working up to 12 hours a day, seven days a week, including during Qatar's hot summer months. Some migrant workers were threatened with penalty fines, deportation or loss of income if they did not show up to work even though they were not being paid. More than 1,000 people were admitted to the trauma unit at Doha's main hospital in 2012 having fallen from height at work, Amnesty said, citing an unnamed hospital representative. Some 10% were disabled as a result and the mortality rate was "significant".
"It is simply inexcusable in one of the richest countries in the world, that so many migrant workers are being ruthlessly exploited, deprived of their pay and left struggling to survive," said Salil Shetty, Amnesty's secretary general. "Our findings indicate an alarming level of exploitation.”
Much of he construction work is the building of football stadiums to accommodate the 2022 World Cup.
The world professional footballers' association Fifpro board member Brendan Schwab said it was "inexcusable for workers' lives to be sacrificed, especially given modern health and safety practices in the construction industry".
Amnesty says migrant workers are often subjected to non-payment of wages, dangerous working conditions and squalid accommodation. The rights group said one manager had referred to workers as "animals".
The workers said they were "treated like cattle", working up to 12 hours a day, seven days a week, including during Qatar's hot summer months. Some migrant workers were threatened with penalty fines, deportation or loss of income if they did not show up to work even though they were not being paid. More than 1,000 people were admitted to the trauma unit at Doha's main hospital in 2012 having fallen from height at work, Amnesty said, citing an unnamed hospital representative. Some 10% were disabled as a result and the mortality rate was "significant".
"It is simply inexcusable in one of the richest countries in the world, that so many migrant workers are being ruthlessly exploited, deprived of their pay and left struggling to survive," said Salil Shetty, Amnesty's secretary general. "Our findings indicate an alarming level of exploitation.”
Much of he construction work is the building of football stadiums to accommodate the 2022 World Cup.
The world professional footballers' association Fifpro board member Brendan Schwab said it was "inexcusable for workers' lives to be sacrificed, especially given modern health and safety practices in the construction industry".
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