Qatar has been given 12 months to end migrant worker slavery or face a possible United Nations investigation.
The warning sets the 2022 World Cup host nation on a path to becoming only the fifth ever country to face a formal inquiry by the UN’s International Labour Organisation into allegations of forced labour after Burma, Haiti, Liberia and Portugal. It could ultimately pave the way for international sanctions.
The move follows an ILO delegation to the Gulf state this month that found migrant workers stranded for months without pay and stripped of their passports. The delegation, led by the Japanese ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Misako Kaji, met undocumented workers who had no access to free healthcare and were deep in debt. They also saw workers’ accommodation that did “not satisfy by far the minimum standards, with most accommodation housing 10 to 12 workers per small room [and with] unhygienic and poor kitchen and sanitary facilities”.
The ILO has told Qatar to act on its warnings about the treatment of the most vulnerable workers and prove its proposed law changes are working or it could decide in March 2017 to launch a “commission of inquiry”. READ MORE OF THIS STORY
