SHAIVAL DALAL / AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL, JOHN BECK FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES MAGAZINE, ANJA NIEDRINGHAUS / AP
international labour standards. “We’re in
a much better position than when the ILO
arrived in 2018,” he tells me in his office on
the sixth floor of the drably named Building
35 in downtown Doha. “The government is
committed to big changes.”
After three years of tense negotiations
between ministers and the ILO, an ancient
practice known as kafala, which prevented
workers from moving jobs or quitting and
going home without their employer’s
consent, has been scrapped. An annually
reviewed minimum wage of £210 a month
has been introduced, excluding food and
lodging costs, which are usually met by
employers. It’s the first of its kind in the
Gulf. Workers’ representatives are now
elected to work councils to negotiate
with management; a multilingual online
complaints system for labourers has been
instituted; and two new courts for labour
disputes are being set up, taking the total
to five. New restrictions on working in the
summer heat have also been introduced.
Critics argue the new laws do not go far
enough — nor are they adequately policed
— and point out that independent trade
unions remain banned. The reforms “are
for face-saving, rather than concern about
workers”, says Barun Ghimire, a human
rights lawyer who acts for Nepalese
workers. Labourers claim it is still difficult
to move jobs because employers threaten
to deport them or report them for
“absconding”, which can lead to arrest.Tunon, 42, who worked for the ILO in
India, China and Thailand before moving
to Doha, acknowledges “there are gaps in
implementation”. He is heartened,
however, by the government’s recent
decision to create a dedicated Ministry of
Labour, headed by Dr Ali bin Smaikh
al-Marri, formerly chief of the independent
Qatar National Human Rights Committee.
The reforms will help to reduce deaths
in future, but what about the 6,500 so far?
That figure, based on records held by the
governments of south Asian nations, is
controversial. Qatar dismisses it as “highly
misleading”, because it represents all
deaths among all the five million south
Asian nationals who worked in Qatar from
2010-20 — not just work-related deaths,
far less World Cup work-related deaths.T
hawadi, who studied law at Sheffield
University and has forensic lawyer-
like focus on the issue, claims there
have been just three work-related
deaths at stadiums since 2010, and
35 non-work-related deaths. That’s
partly because Fifa wrote strict
worker welfare and safety rules into tender
documents for World Cup contractors. The
ILO has investigated migrant worker deaths
and found that in 2020 there were 50 across
all of Qatar, not just on World Cup projects.
Critics say all local analysis of work-related
deaths underestimates the total because
it relies on government figures that are
limited to deaths at the workplace and do
not take account of deaths from chronic
conditions such as kidney disease caused
by working in the harsh environment.
Whatever the total, it is far too high for
a country as wealthy as Qatar.
What do labourers say? Are conditions
improving? I phone the government
communications office and ask to visit a
camp. The next morning I arrive at a dusty
desert settlement where 1,800 migrants
work ten-hour shifts, six days a week for the
local contractor HBK, which is building theLusail stadium. I’m introduced to Vijay
Shankar, 36, a plumber from Bihar in India.
“When I first came here 15 years ago to
work for another company I earned £
a month,” he says. “Now it’s £300.”
He shows me his room in one of a series
of two-storey dormitories. He shares with
three other labourers in a space 20ft by 12ft.
Each gets a low metal bed with only a
pull-around curtain for the barest
semblance of privacy and a small metal
locker for personal possessions. There is air
conditioning, wi-fi and basic — but clean
— showers and lavatories. Laundry is done
by the company and the food is OK, he says.
“We complained about the thickness of the
dal and they fixed it.” I walk around the other
rooms and confirm they are all the same.
How does it compare with his experience
15 years ago when he first came to work in
Qatar? “We had 18 men in a dormitory. The
toilets were holes in the floor. We had to buy
and cook our own food, wash our own
clothes, travel to go shopping on our own
— there’s now a free bus.” I ask him whether
there are still bad camps in Qatar, like the
ones he used to live in. He nods nervously,
mindful of the fate of critics of the regime.
The HBK camp is a World Cup camp
where standards are supposed to be decent.
So I ask the government to see an
independent camp. The next day I arrive at
Labour City in the industrial zone, ten miles
into the desert from downtown Doha, home
to some 70,000 workers who toil onFrom top: cramped
rooms for migrant
workers exposed in
2012; Vijay Shankar
says conditions have
improved; lodgings
for workers building
Lusail stadium; the
emir of Qatar and his
wife celebrate the
winning bid in 2010Some private contractors have dragged their feet over working conditions.
“We have the good, the bad and the ugly,” admits Hassan al-Thawadi
The Sunday Times Magazine • 15