Al-Hurr condemns Qatar’s inhumane practices against foreign workers

Manama, Aug. 21 (BNA): Chairman of the Executive Council of the Bahrain Free Labour Unions Federation (Al Hurr), Yaqoob Yusef Mohammed, has condemned the State of Qatar’s inhumane practices against hundreds of thousands of Asian and African workers who are exploited and living in precarious conditions in both workplaces and accommodation. Yaqoob Yusef Mohammed called for launching an international investigation, under the supervision of the Arab Labour Organisation (ALO), the International Labour Arab Organisation (ILO), as well as international human rights organisations, to force Doha to adhere to transparency in the file of construction workers, an issue, he said, that has become exposed at the international level without any effective accountability. Al-Hurr chief stressed that labour strikes, protests, deaths, and the continued failure of the Qatari government to ensure the rights of foreign workers on its territory uncover the ‘real and ugly face of the Qatari regime’ which is trying to exploit the organisation of the 2022 World Cup, to obscure the violations of foreign workers’ rights and humanity to a level that bears the hallmark of ‘collective crimes’. He emphasised that Al-Hurr joins the international human rights organisations and regional and international trade unions, which have condemned the exploitation of foreign workers’ need and poverty to achieve gains on the corpses of victims, in supporting those whose minimum basic requirements have not been guaranteed by the Qatari Judiciary. Al-Hurr chaiman described what is happening to Asian and African workers in Qatar as ‘racial and inhuman crimes’, as they are, he said, forced to work under the burning sun in periods during which work is legally prohibited, and the government of Qatar ignores for the sake of completing the construction of sports facilities before the World Cup 2022, someting that Qatar has recently recognised, under international pressure. He stressed that the State of Qatar should ensure the basic rights of workers and abide by international standards at work, especially in the Arabian Gulf region, calling on the Qatari government to take real measures to disburse workers' dues, and not to manipulate the fates of those who do not have nothing but Allah the Almighty. He also stressed that what human beings are suffering in Qatar completely contravenes the principles of the Islamic Sharia, which calls for paying wokers' wages without delay. He highlighted the international reports on Qatar's human rights record, which confirmed that it is still a cause for concern, especially with Doha's attempts to discredit what is happening on the ground in a bid to show a false picture of the tragedy of workers in its connstruction facilities.