(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Ever since Qatar won the bid to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup , the international media spotlight has been on the " small desert country" which was until recently known for its exploits in the natural gas field. Though a strong contender from the beginning, the 2022 bid "victory" proved to be a game-changer and certain sources, including a section of the global media, found a special delight in tarnishing the image of Qatar by singling out unfortunate incidents and blowing them out of proportion to meet a particular agenda.
While doing so, they have totally ignored the overall picture. Just consider this: Qatar, smaller in size than Connecticut € one of the smallest US states € is home to people from more than 180 countries. Of the total population of 2.26mn, only about 300,000 are locals, the rest coming to work or do business in the Arabian Gulf country from all corners of the world. Foreigners have lived in Qatar for decades and some of the young professionals working in Qatar today belong to the second and third generations of expatriates who arrived here in search of work in the '40s and '50s.
That there is a clear plan to find fault with Qatar by any means is evident from the usage of data in a biased and totally unfair manner by a section of the international media. After configuring the magical number of 4,000 Nepalis "who would have to die to build the World Cup stadiums" they were quick to grab the death figures released earlier this year by the Indian embassy in Doha, which said 455 Indians have died in Qatar in two years (2012 and 2013). Without realising the fact that most of these deaths occurred due to natural causes the vilifiers were quick to trumpet the "large number of Indian casualties in Qatar" and tie it up with the 2022 World Cup's "poor victims".
The campaign soon reached such a crescendo that the Indian embassy had to issue a statement trashing the claims of some of the rights and media organisations, stressing that the figure was normal given the presence of such a large number of Indians - more than 500,000 - in the country.
Qatar has never denied that there had been no cases of violation of workers' rights in the country. On the other hand, the government has shown its willingness to correct any such behaviour by introducing new laws and implementing strictly the rules to protect workers from exploitation and abuse. Recently, the government has announced its intention to abolish the sponsorship system and reform the Labour Law to ensure that workers' rights are protected in the country.
It has also been announced to increase the number of labour inspectors to book violators. In 2013, the inspectors of the Labour Department made thousands of visits to worksites and labour camps to make sure that low-income workers, the most vulnerable segment of the workforce, are not exploited or mistreated. A large number of employers have been penalised and several blacklisted for not abiding by the rules.
Irrespective of the best efforts, there are cases of violations as is the case with any society in the world. In Qatar, the logistics of looking after the interests of foreign workers present formidable challenges as the matter is of gigantic proportions. Qatar has about 1.5mn low- and middle-income workers who come from as diverse places as the high-altitude Himalayan mountains to the hot plains of Africa. They are hosted by a mix of employers ranging from excellent paymasters to a small number of abhorrent crooks.
A few of the unsuspecting overseas workers have been unfortunate to end up with the wrong employers. There are hundreds of thousands of workers who put in a day's honest work, are paid and looked after according to their contracts, enjoy their stay in the country and go home at the end of their tenure.
For some, things can go wrong from the start of the recruiting process. After paying a huge amount (often procured from loan sharks) to the recruitment agent in their home countries and arriving in Qatar with great expectations, they may find they have been recruited for a job they are not qualified for or they have been promised pay and perks beyond the salary structure of the local company. Huge debts back home coupled with bloated expectations of family add pressure on the worker who finds it difficult to match the "demand and supply" equation on all fronts. For such folks the whole experience could be unsavoury and for some among them it may lead to grievous endings.
Gulf Times in its role as a catalyst for all-round development in Qatar has sent journalists to learn the ground realities in four countries € Nepal, India, Sri Lanka and the Philippines € which send the largest numbers of workers to Qatar. In the coming days we will be publishing a series of reports comprising our findings in an effort to understand what bearing the situation in the sourcing countries has on the overall situation of expatriate workers in Qatar.
In the meantime, Qatar continues to welcome and receive workers from all over the world as partners in materialising the massive infrastructure and development projects worth about $155bn scheduled for the coming years.
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