Qatar

Constructing Qatar: Migrant Narratives from the Margins of the Global System

Date: 03/07/2012 - 16:56

Migrants who become the “invisible” laborers in the oil-rich Middle East tell their personal stories in a new e-book co-edited by Andrew Gardner, an anthropologist at University of Puget Sound. Constructing Qatar: Migrant Narratives from the Margins of the Global System illuminates the experiences and perspectives of individuals who endure a difficult life, with few rights or freedoms, in a foreign place in order to support families back home.

Building a Better World Cup

Date: 14/06/2012 - 15:24

This new report examines a recruitment and employment system that effectively traps many migrant workers in their jobs. The problems they face include exorbitant recruitment fees, which can take years to pay off, employers’ routine confiscation of worker passports, and Qatar’s restrictive sponsorship system that gives employers inordinate control over their employees.

World’s Unions Criticise Decision to Hold 2012 Climate Summit in Qatar

Date: 29/11/2011 - 19:07

The decision to allow Qatar, notorious for its violations of workers’ rights, to host the 2012 UN climate change summit has been strongly criticised by the world’s main trade union body, the ITUC.

FIFA warned to make sure Qatar respects workers rights

Date: 18/11/2011 - 11:32

International union representatives are to present FIFA president Sepp Blatter with a letter on Thursday telling him of the campaign 'No World Cup in Qatar without labour rights'. FIFA agreed to meet the unions after a trade union report on migrant workers in Qatar and United Arab Emirates criticised "inhuman" conditions this year, the International Trade Union Confederation said.

Hidden faces of the Gulf miracle

Date: 07/06/2011 - 13:08

A new multimedia report uncovering the human cost of the huge migrant labour force in the Gulf States of Qatar and the United Arab Emirates is being launched today by the International Trade Union Confederation in Brussels.

The International Trade Union Confederation will be using the report to put pressure on FIFA and the Qatar 2022 World Cup, for which 12 stadiums are expected to be built over the next ten years.

Migrant workers ‘feel trapped in the Gulf

Date: 23/02/2011 - 10:59

An American researcher on Asian employment in the Gulf region says many migrant workers are “trapped in a tricky situation” due to lack of proper information in their countries about the working conditions in the Gulf.

Speaking at a seminar organised by Qatar University, Andrew Gardner, an assistant professor at the University of Puget Sound in Washington, said many potential migrants continue to envision the Gulf as a place “where the streets are paved with gold.”

UN human rights chief notes changes under way in Gulf region, highlights key concerns

Date: 21/04/2010 - 10:20

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said Monday she believes there is an “encouraging level of governmental activity to improve human rights” in the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) States, especially in the area of economic and social rights, children’s rights and human trafficking, while also noting an array of continuing concerns about women’s rights, migration, statelessness, and freedom of expression, association and assembly.

Middle East countries agree to improve protection of Indonesian workers

Date: 14/04/2010 - 13:05

Qatar, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Lebanon and Saudi Arabia have agreed to improve protection of Indonesian migrant workers employed in the Middle East countries.

Manpower and Transmigration Minister Muhaimin Iskandar had visited the four countries and discussed efforts to protect Indonesia’s migrant workers, Secretary of the Directorate General for Workers' Training and Placement, Abdul Malik Harahap, said Tuesday.

Migration and the Gulf

Date: 11/03/2010 - 09:59

This collection of essays is the first of three volumes devoted to Migration and the Arab World. The 19 authors whose essays appear in this first volume address several salient questions: What are the sizes and characteristics of the non-national workforces of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries? Which “push” and “pull” factors have driven and continue to drive this phenomenon? What effects has labor migration had on the sending and receiving countries, and on the migrants themselves?

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