Amnesty International exposes Qatar’s using corona crisis to expel non-infected migrant workforce
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Roshan Amiri
- . October 2, 2021
- . Update: April 16, 2020 11:36 am
Qatar– Voting began today in Qatar for state’s first legislative elections for two-thirds of the advisory Shura Council. During the voting, a domestic debate was stirred between the voters over electoral inclusion and citizenship.
Voters began trickling into polling stations, where men and women entered separate sections to elect 30 members of the 45-seat body. The ruling emir will continue to appoint the remaining 15 members of the Council. Munira, who is an author for children’s book, mentions that with the chance to vote she feel this is a new chapter. She is elated that about the number of women standing as candidates.
The Council will enjoy legislative authority and approve general state policies and the budget, but has no control over executive bodies. This policy has definetly set defence, security, economic and investment policy for the small but wealthy gas producer, which ban political parties.
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Among the 183 candidates, there are 18 women who are hoping to be elected at stations across 30 districts in the country, which has for several years held municipal polls.
It is noted that among all the gulf nations, only Kuwait has made a move towards empowering voters, with a fully elected parliament. Yet its quasi-democracy contributed to dysfunctional policy making. The ballot in Qatar, enabled under a 2003 constitution, won’t dilute the ruling dynasty’s power in the same way.
Sofia Meranto, who is a Gulf analyst at Eurasia Groupasserted that the authorities are really looking to maintain a grip on the process, the candidates, and to a degree, the outcome. The changes will be mostly cosmetic for progress in improving their plight. Rather, amidst the onslaught of the coronavirus, Gulf nation opted to detain over a dozen men without any preventive measures and then deported them to their nations without telling them the reason or giving any prior notice. Is it Doha’s new way of shunning away from providing proper health care to these labour workers and to take off extra burden from its economy?
The government told Amnesty that, while inspecting Doha’s Industrial Area, officials “uncovered individuals engaged in illegal and illicit activity”.
“This included the manufacture and sale of banned and prohibited substances, along with the sale of dangerous food goods that could seriously threaten the health of people if consumed,” Amnesty quoted the government as saying.
Interestingly, most of the detainees said that they were not told the grounds of their detention, while two of the migrant workers said that officials spoke to them in Arabic accusing them of supplying alcohol. When the rights group reviewed the detention document, which was in Arabic, it did not state that the detainees were charged with any criminal offence.
Qatari authorities not only violated the worker’s workers’ right to health and full protection during the COVID-19 crisis but also deprived them of the right to challenge their detention. Besides, the rich oil nation did not clear the dues of those migrant workers, many of whom were the sole breadwinner of their families. The detained workers told Amnesty that they were sent back without ‘getting their owed salary and end-of-service benefits’. The rights group raised the concern as many of the workers take huge loans to travel and secure a job in Qatar.
