Qatar To Ends Kafala Labour System – Free PDF Download

• Qatar is a peninsula in the east of Arabia, bordering the Persian Gulf and Saudi Arabia, in a strategic location near major petroleum deposits.

POPULATION

• Qatar has about 2.6 million inhabitants as of early 2017, the majority of whom (about 92%) live in Doha, the capital.
• Foreign workers amount to around 70-80% of the population, with Indians being the largest community numbering around 1,230,000. The treatment of these foreign workers has been heavily criticized in recent years, with living conditions suggested to be exploitative and abusive.

FACT

• There are nearly five foreign workers for each Qatari citizen, mostly housemaids and low skilled workers.

CONDITION OF WORKERS IN QATAR

• The kafala system is a system used to monitor migrant laborers, working primarily in the construction and domestic sectors in Gulf Cooperation Council member states and a few neighbouring countries, namely Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

KAFALA SYSTEM

• Under the system, a migrant worker’s immigration status is legally bound to an individual employer or sponsor (‘kafeel’) during the contract period. The migrant worker cannot enter the country, transfer employment nor leave the country for any reason without first obtaining explicit written permission from the kafeel.

DEVELOPMENTS

• That’s according to the United Nations’ International Labor Organization, which said recently that Qatar planned to end the so-called “kafala” system there.
• The ILO says workers would be able to freely change employers under draft laws described as being “expected to come into force by January 2020.”

INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANIZATION

FIFA WORLD CUP IS NEARING

• Qatar, whose citizens enjoy one of the world’s highest per-capita incomes due to its natural gas reserves, partially ended the “kafala” system in 2018. (Although Human rights Orgs said it had little to no impact)
• This comes as Qatar will host the 2022 FIFA World Cup in the Arabian Peninsula nation.

FEAR OF PROTESTS AT WORLD CUP

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