ISLAMABAD: A spokesperson for the Pakistani foreign office said this week Pakistan had taken up with the Qatari government the case of labourers who had been contracted to work in Qatar - many of them on projects related to the 2022 FIFA World Cup - but had not been paid in months.
On June 10, Amnesty International revealed that an investigation by the watchdog had found that around 100 migrant workers at one of the tournament’s “crown jewel” stadiums had not been paid for up to seven months, despite Qatari authorities knowing about the problem as far back as last summer. The Amnesty report does not specify whether any of the affected laborers were Pakistani.
“The Pakistani embassy [in Doha] has already taken up all such cases with Qatar’s ministry of labor,” Pakistani foreign office spokesperson, Aisha Farooqui, told Arab News when asked about the overdue wages of labourers working in Qatar. “The minister of labor has also assured of his support in the resolution of such cases.”
Kashif Ahmed Noor, a director general at the Bureau of Emigration and Overseas Pakistanis, said the Qatari government had promised Pakistan around 100,000 jobs related to World Cup projects in 2015, following which more than 80,000 Pakistanis were sent to Qatar. He said he did not have details of the “individual deployment of workers” but said around 150,000 Pakistanis in total were currently working in Qatar while around 700 had reported a delay in receiving their salaries.
“There were another 4,300 who registered for repatriation to avail leave [majority unpaid] from different companies due to the coronavirus pandemic,” Noor said, adding that a majority of the payment issues had been resolved
“We also received more complaints related to payments after the coronavirus outbreak,” he said, adding that Pakistan was working with the Qatari government and employers to resolve all pending issues.
Qadir Bakshi, a Pakistani laborer working on a World Cup football infrastructure project for the last three years, said he had not received a salary for the past three months, adding that he lost his job when he insisted on being paid.
Another Pakistani worker, Raja Muzzaffar from Bahawalpur, also said his employment was terminated after he was not paid for months.
In a statement released on June 10, the Qatari government’s communication office said in response to the Amnesty statement: “The government has made significant progress in recent years to reform the country’s labour system. There are still issues to overcome, including those related to the attitudes and behaviours of a small minority. This will take time, but we remain firmly committed to the task.”