The Qatari Emir is here, will India call for an end to Kafala?

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Siddhartha Mishra |The News Minute | March 25, 2015 | 7:00 p.m. IST

As the Qatari Emir is in India to push for stronger economic and commercial ties, activists are calling for revoking Kafala, the labour law in the country, which has been reportedly responsible for widespread human rights violations.

What is Kafala:

Kafala is the system of law that binds the employer to the employee in several Gulf countries. A migrant worker can only make his way across to these countries through a kafeel (sponsor).

The system, which contradicts basic labour laws, decrees that the employer dictates working conditions and also doesn’t allow for an employee to get out of a contract with the kafeel until the kafeel themselves allow so.

Since their sponsors also have the power to deport them, workers end up being blackmailed and in a job whose terms and conditions they cannot decide, with even their passports in the sponsor’s possession.

Image Courtesy: Amnesty International

The number of Indians in the Gulf country are reportedly over 6, 00,000.

In February 2014, official figures confirmed by the Indian embassy in Doha state that between January 2012 and 2014, 502 migrants from India working in Qatar had died there. Reportedly, since the World Cup was awarded to the country in December 2010, 717 Indians have died.

The Indian embassy has also remained pretty tight-lipped on the cause of these deaths, or where the concerned persons worked. The plight of Nepalese workers though, who also make up a sizeable population of the country, has been well highlighted with statistics showing that more than two-thirds of them succumbed to sudden heart failures or workplace accidents.

The state of migrant workers has received much criticism from the international media. A report by Amnesty International from 2013 quotes a manager from one of the construction firms in the country referring to workers as “the animals”.

Image Courtesy: Amnesty International

The FIFA Link:

Since the country, with not much of a base in football, won the bid to host the football World Cup, the manpower and man-hours needed by construction companies to build the requisite stadia in time is taking its toll on the workers. Several organizations have since come up opposing Kafala as a system of employment.

“Qatar’s slavery system that is helping to build the World Cup is centuries out of date” Sam Barratt, the Campaign Director of Avaaz, told The News Minute. “We need to stop the flow of ‘Kafala Coffins’ being sent home across South Asia”, he adds.

Also referring to the Emir’s visit he says: “When the Emir comes calling, the Indian government must stand up for every single worker who has died in the 50 degree heat of Doha and call time on their modern-day slavery.”

Image Courtesy: Amnesty International

“Time is running out fast. It has been four years since Qatar won the bid to host the World Cup, putting itself in the global spotlight, so far its response to migrant labor abuses has not been much more than promises of action and draft laws,” said Sherif Elsayed-Ali, Head of Refugee and Migrants’ Rights at Amnesty International, in a press statement in November 2013.

In May last year, after pressure from FIFA, the Qatari government promised to do away with the sponsorship law (kafala) and introduce a new system as soon as possible.

The Abdeslam Ouaddou case:

FIFA also exerted its influence after football players plying their trade in the country complained of unpaid wages and violations of basic freedoms.

In February last year, Morocco defender Abdeslam Ouaddou won his case against the football club Qatar SC after the Dispute Resolution Chamber (DRC) of FIFA ruled in his favor. When he had filed his appeal citing unpaid wages for six months, the club refused to hand over his exit-visa. Only when he threatened to report his case to human rights organizations was his visa handed over to him.

“I have travelled a lot and I have to say that Qatar have a lot of work to do regarding workers rights, human rights and simple basics for human beings”, Ouaddou told the News Minute.

Image Courtesy: https://www.facebook.com/Abdesouaddou

The footballer, who has played in England and France also says that the labour laws in the Gulf country are totally different. “Contracts are different in France because, the worker is protected by a law which takes care of work timings, security, insurance, health, and most importantly, there are clauses in the contract which gives the opportunity for the worker or the employer to stop the contract by common consent”, he says.

Ouaddou is also critical of the treatment of foreign nationals in the country. “Of course you sometimes have bad employers” he says “but you can go to court with a lawyer in tow to defend your rights”. He adds though that it is “different in Qatar, because first of all the migrants don't have financial power to take a lawyer, due to their poor wages”. “And the kafala system doesn’t give them the freedom to speak and to strike; this slavery system must absolutely stop”, he says.

When asked if he was aware of the working conditions that migrants were forced to work under, he says: “During my stay in Qatar, I have seen and met a lot of migrants, but their life is an absolute disaster, a kind of hell”. “Sometimes I could see hundreds and hundreds of migrants working in the heat, sleeping outside to rest, or eating on the field”, he adds.

Elaborating on their plight further, he recounts an incident where migrants weren’t allowed to enter a mall which was only for “Qataris”. He says, “I was shocked by the scene”.

“These people are building their (Qataris) country and they are not allowed to enter a mall! Which century are these people living in?” he asks.

Image Courtesy: Amnesty International

The question is of value since according to statistics, as on December 7, 2014, Indians made up 23.58% of the country’s population. Qataris, on the other hand, come third at close to 12% while sandwiched in the middle are the Nepalese who make up 17.3% of the population.

The World Cup in Qatar is still seven years away. Close to 1.4 million migrant workers are reportedly in Qatar, looking after its preparations. Many more may also be required.

The Qatari dispensation needs to ensure they’d want to go there.