Human rights abuses in Qatar ‘persist on significant scale’, says Amnesty report

With a month to go until the opening match of the World Cup, human rights abuses “persist on a significant scale” in Qatar, according to Amnesty International.

In a final pre-tournament report, Amnesty said that progress has been delivered by the Qatari state on the protections afforded migrant workers. But weak regulations and a lack of enforcement means there is “still a long way to go”, the organisation says. Amnesty calls for a number of actions, including support from Qatar and Fifa for financial compensation for workers.

“Despite the positive evolution of Qatar’s labour system, substantial work remains to effectively implement and enforce these [changes],” the report says. “Ultimately, human rights abuses persist on a significant scale today.”

Among its observations, the report finds that workers in security and domestic labour remain particularly vulnerable to exploitation, with some expected to work up to 18 hours a day without a weekly day off. Furthermore, Amnesty argues, there has been insufficient research into the thousands of deaths of those working in construction in the country over the past decade, and the contribution played by extreme heat. The report also finds vestiges of the abolished kafala system in the country, and states that wages are still commonly withheld from workers.

Steve Cockburn, Amnesty’s head of economic and social justice, said: “Although Qatar has made important strides on labour rights over the past five years, it’s abundantly clear that there is a great distance still to go.

“With the World Cup looming, the job of protecting migrant workers from exploitation is only half done, while that of compensating those who have suffered abuses has barely started.”

“Progress must not grind