Funny how many are upset by the “modern day slavery” in Qatar (because a World Cup is being held there and it will interfere with the domestic games at Christmas) but no one gives a fuck about the same thing happening in Abu Dhabi. Only difference is that the basic is higher for those workers in Qatar than Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
I totally agree the World Cup should never have been awarded there, it was almost certainly corrupt but City fans banging on about the alleged human rights abuses in one Emirate whilst ignoring the one that owns and funds City is hypocrisy in the extreme.
Edit. Just read the article, half the allegations, if true, are illegal. Companies are forbidden from taking away passports. The act of doing so is illegal and would lead to fines and prison sentences for sub contractors. So is stopping workers from leaving the country. Exit visas are noW approved by ministry of interior rather than employers (they do a quick check to ensure people aren’t doing a runner from court or a debt). Another allegation which is illegal is the cost of transport being put on to the worker. Every employer must fund transport to and from Qatar for expat (migrant) workers in total.
It’s also illegal to withhold wage payments to workers and in the past couple of years a new law and unit established to ensure these laws are adhered to:
https://www.tmf-group.com/~/media/files/pdfs/country essentials/emea/qatar/qatar wps_oct2015 final.pdf
http://www.mondaq.com/x/434888/empl...uction+Of+The+Wage+Protection+System+In+Qatar
As for armed guards in Malls, never seen one once in 4 and a half years. “Family zones” and workers not allowed in Malls on Fridays? Absolute and utter bollocks. I’m starting to think the reporter has never set foot in the country. I was at Villagio Mall for a meeting this morning and it was absolutely stuffed with groups of migrant men having coffees and cakes and walking around.
Qatar isn’t perfect. Far from it. There’s very little to do other than the beach, pool or go out on a boat (along with a dozen or so shopping malls the size of the Trafford Centre) unless you want to go to nice bars and get hammered. It should not be hosting a World Cup no doubt, that sort of thing should happen in countries where Football ‘is a thing’. But it will and the infrastructure will be ready and expensive and modern when the time comes and I’ll get to piss off to the Caymans or somewhere else warm and sunny, but it’s ceryainly no worse than Dubai or Abu Dhabi and far better and more Westernised than Bahrain or Oman.
For anyone remotely interested in the real laws and changes made by Qatar in relation to workers rights, here’s a decent article detailing why the majority of the bollocks in the Independent article is either made up or illegal acts by sub contractors:
https://www.oxfordbusinessgroup.com...nt-changes-have-been-made-qatar’s-labour-laws
We, as City fans are well aware of fake news and certain editorial decisions to ensure articles are written with a certain bias appealing to the majority of the targeted readership. The Indy article may well have been true in 2012 but there’s not a single allegation in its article which would be within the guidelines of workers rights when it was written a week ago.
When the gang masters made 50 Chinese cockle pickers walk around Morecambe Bay in the dark 15 years ago and 20 of them drowned, no one criticised the UK as a whole. They criticised the illegal actions of the employers. I’m not sure this situation is too dissimilar. There may well be some companies still breaking the law but it seems that every month the local papers publish stories of contractors being fined and having their contract revoked for breaking those laws.
