The Gulf Association for Rights and Freedoms has sent an urgent appeal to the offices of both the Director-General of the International Labour Organisation, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, asking them to intervene urgently regarding the grave violation which the Qatari government is currently committing against its citizens and the approximately 2.2 million expatriate workers there, a majority of whom are from Asian countries.
According to the association’s spokesman, Mohammed Hayef, the Qatari government has enforced a ban on its citizens and expatriate workers from taking their annual leave and cancelled all leave requests which, he said, likely cause a great danger to the working conditions of migrant workers.
Hayef said that by preventing people from taking their annual leave, rates of serious and fatal work accidents could increase, “due to depriving workers and placing them under harsh working conditions and physical, psychological and social pressures,” he said.
He added that this is especially true for workers in companies that oversee the construction projects for the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
The urgent appeal called for the intervention of the International Labour Organisation and the Human Rights High Commission to condemn Qatar’s decision which “contradicts the conventions of the International Labour Organisation and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and violates the basic human right to enjoy annual leave,” Hayef said.
An excerpt of the International Labour Organisation constitution, of which Qatar is a member state, states the following:
“Whereas universal and lasting peace can be established only if it is based upon social justice, and whereas conditions of labour exist involving such injustice, hardship and privation to large numbers of people as to produce unrest so great that the peace and harmony of the world are imperilled.”
“By this unjust decision, Qatar has violated the most important universal and humanitarian provision in the International Labour Organisation’s constitution,” Hayef added.
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