London – Information Office – 02 November
The State of Qatar's Media Attach for the UK HE Sheikh Thamer bin Hamad Al-Thani said Friday that the State of Qatar is working on overhauling its labor system so that all employees in the country are protected by the best possible employment laws and regulations, stressing that the State of Qatar was not ambivalent to the plight of its migrant workers.
In a statement made to The Guardian, His Excellency referred to an article published in the paper on October 29 by Pete Pattisson and said that it failed to acknowledge the progress Qatar has made in reforming its labor system and attempted to portray the country as ambivalent to the plight of our migrant workforce. His Excellency stressed that such claims were simply untrue.
Qatar's Media Attach then presented some number's to reflect the work being made to address labor issues, noting that the State of Qatar carried out over 19,000 labor inspections, banned almost 12,000 companies due to not addressing the laws, and added almost 230,000 electronic contracts to prevent against contract substitution, all in the first half of 2018.
In addition to that, His Excellency added, The State of Qatar was cooperating with the International Labor Organization and countries of origin to eliminate employment fees at source. His Excellency also said that these efforts will become more prominent once the country opens 20 visa-processing centers in eight countries over the coming months.
His Excellency highlighted that October also saw the removal of exit permits for the majority of overseas workers, which His Excellency hailed as another major step in the reform process. HE the Media Attach maintained however that the State needs to be vigilant in enforcing the new laws.
"Where violations of the law occur, workers are encouraged to report these and have multiple mechanisms to do so. This is why we viewed the claims made in the article with such concern and Qatars Ministry of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs has announced an investigation into these claims," His Excellency said.