This report uses Qatar as a case study to examine how the global public health crisis affected destitute migrants in the Middle East and how employers and the government responded. It also makes a series of reform recommendations that would promote human rights by improving workers’ economic and living conditions.
The report’s central findings are two- fold: After a slow start, the government of Qatar provided migrant workers with free, adequate healthcare in response to the pandemic. But foreign laborers suffered economically as a result of construction delays, wage reductions, terminated contracts, and deportations. The contrast between the government’s vigorous public health campaign and its failure to protect workers’ livelihoods is key. Qatar should address migrants’ economic needs with the same energy and resourcefulness illustrated by its efforts to stem the spread of Covid-19.
The progressive responses by some businesses to the Black Lives Matter protests, and the systemic racism they are calling attention to, have been framed as voluntary commitments of socially conscious companies. In fact, all businesses have an ironcl...Read More
Forced labor, trafficking, and modern slavery (referred to collectively herein as forced labor) are human rights abuses persistent in global supply chains. The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that, in 2016, 16 million people&n...Read More
Trafficking in Persons (TIP) is a gross violation of human rights, including the right to life, liberty, and security, and the right to be free from torture and/or cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment or punishment. It erodes the safety of commu...Read More
The COVID-19 pandemic is exposing just how fragile the protection and prevention framework on modern slavery is, despite progress in recent years resulting from a new focus, marked particularly by a drive toward national anti-slavery legislation. ...Read More
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