Qatar World Cup 2022

[Gullscorer]

If you’re a foreign worker in Quatar, you must have your employer’s permission to leave the country. It’s been described as indentured servitude, but that’s only if things go well. In the case of any dispute, say a salary dispute, an employer can, and often does, withhold that permission, effectively trapping you as a slave.

Zahir Belounis, a French-Algerian football player was lured in with a contract, but his club dropped his salary and refused to give him permission to leave until he abandoned claims to his salary. “I have lost everything. Now I want to come back to my country. Give me my freedom. Here you can stop someone leaving if they have done something, made a mistake (i.e. committed a crime). I have nothing against me. Nothing, nothing, nothing.”

He was only released after the French President François Hollande and Tim Noonan , president of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) intervened on his behalf. How many are enslaved by the Kafala system in GCC nations and lack the resources to appeal to international presidents? His is certainly not the only story. ITUC estimates that betwee 500K and one million people will be needed to construct the 2022 World Cup stadium, and that 4000 human persons will die due to poor labour conditions, which are lower in Qatar than other nations in the area.

Sharan Burrow, General Secretary of the ITUC describes it thus: “Migrant workers are trapped in Qatar under the strict kafala system. To be injured and trapped in Qatar is even worse. Injured workers face being stuck there without being able to work, without pay, in a country where your employer owns you, sharing a room with ten grown men recuperating from injuries. We are appealing to the Qatari Government to grant a kafala amnesty to injured workers giving them the choice to change employers, or to leave the country with their end of service benefit."

Fifa’s reputation is on the line, as it should be. But so is the reputation of the nation of Qatar, and they just don’t seem concerned.

Full article here: http://www.avoiceformen.com/mens-rights ... orekafala/

[happytorq]

why does the URL to the linked article include "mens-rights"? Surely this isn't a male or a female thing, but a human rights issue?

[Gullscorer]

why does the URL to the linked article include "mens-rights"? Surely this isn't a male or a female thing, but a human rights issue?

Absolutely right. But, outside a few sports sites and perhaps a few news sites, you'll not have that easy a job to find this topic on any 'human rights' or 'women's rights' websites. I happened to find the article where I did. Does anybody else care? If so, I should be delighted..

[happytorq]

it's been pretty much everywhere, really.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/201 ... glish-club\
http://www.arabianbusiness.com/qatar-tr ... 42900.html
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2 ... qatar.html
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/f ... nt-workers

[Scott Brehaut]

https://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en-G ... V1nU7kso6c

[Gullscorer]

Good to see all that. But, as I said, sports sites and news sites..