See my post in the other thread about living in Qatar.<p>The exit visa is a system that legally enables indentured servitude. Any country that has this system (pretty much just Islamic mideast countries) should be shunned by the US and the UN (won't happen of course given the US has a couple of bases in Qatar and BP has a huge investment there).
From another article on the topic by The Guardian [1]<p><i>The British engineering company Halcrow, part of the CH2M Hill group, is a lead consultant on the Lusail project responsible for "infrastructure design and construction supervision". CH2M Hill was recently appointed the official programme management consultant to the supreme committee. It says it has a "zero tolerance policy for the use of forced labour and other human trafficking practices".<p>Halcrow said: "Our supervision role of specific construction packages ensures adherence to site contract regulation for health, safety and environment. The terms of employment of a contractor's labour force is not under our direct purview."</i><p>So they've got a zero tolerance policy, unless you're talking about the actions of their contractors which is just, like, totally out of their control, man.<p>1. <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/25/revealed-qatars-world-cup-slaves?CMP=twt_gu" rel="nofollow">http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/25/revealed-qatars...</a>
On a side note, is there anyway we can donate money to his family. ~ $1500 with 36% interest is lot of money for his poor Nepalese family and I doubt they will be able to repay that debt. I guess they will have to work rest of their life just to repay money.<p>I'd be up for donating some money to their family. How do I do it?
Lot of Indians also work in these countries due to poverty reasons. I feel privileged to be born in a relatively wealthy and educated family in India. If it was not the case may be I would have one of the migrant workers like them.<p>If these countries have oil money in abundance then why don't they give good working conditions and pay more money. Few million dollars will hardly going to move needle for them. I smell corruption.
"""
...Nepalese men and women leave their towns and villages for jobs overseas. More than 100,000 head to Qatar, where a booming construction industry and insatiable appetite for cheap labour has been fuelled by its successful bid to host the 2022 World Cup...
"""<p>Just like Rome's slaves built the Colosseum so that the upper classes could keep the masses entertained to keep exploiting them.<p>We really have not learned shit in the past couple thousand years.
Why is this not front-page news of mainstream media? (I know why, it's because it's not profitable). But where is the outrage? Why is fighting back restricted to a few NGOs and some back office of the Nepalese government?
This story make me sad for the human species, it sounds criminal.<p>On the upside, with tech of course:<p>Is there any existing app for labor conditions reporting?<p>If potential employees had a slight opportunity to easily research conditions, they might choose another company with a better record. This would have the potential to drive disreputable shops out of business and promote those that care a bit more about basic human rights. It would be a daunting education and development task, but one that would be meaningful.
I am from Nepal. This happens because of poverty and people need to make a living. Awareness is high among migrant workers about the conditions - given hundreds of thousands travel each year and news travels back. But hope of 200-500 USD per month makes people take risks and the exodus continues.<p>Once there, dodgy contractors and employment agents take advantage when they can. The exit visa system really doesn't help either. Neither do unstable government, weak economy and low employment back home.<p>It is an actual fact that in desperation, the poor migrant workers are made to work long hours in extreme heat (direct sunlight). At nighttime, close to the desert where many of these fetid labour quarters are get suddenly cold. Extreme variations in temperature and strenuous manual work is said to have contributed to all these heart attack deaths in young people - as young as 20. I'm not sure exactly because I'm not a medical professional - but the conditions are definitely not conducive to human survival.<p>The way international community has taken notice with this article does help. Business communities and political interests might do their best to keep the blatant human/labour rights violation under wraps but spreading the news will make their task harder. People from countries with vested economic stakes in these gulf countries etc could do well to pressurise their governments to demand accountability. Work is what the workers want - but in humane conditions. Death should not be an acceptable condition of employment.
I am from Nepal. The irony in all this is that we Nepalese will keep flying the Qatar Airways. The Nepalese airlines, a state-owned corporation, used to have regular flights to many busy destinations like Frankfurt. But like with everything that has happened in Nepal for the last 10-15 years, this has gone downhill.<p>Qatar bribed many Football Associations in FIFA to get this world cup bid. One of them was Nepal. The Nepalese FA's president is in good terms with the Qatari FA, and was apparently given nice kickbacks for voting in their favor.
This situation seems like an embodiment of several bad things that can be found everywhere, but all taken to the extreme. They add up to a slavery system.<p>First of all, I think that slavery is a relative concept. The modern comparison archetype that most people know the most about is the American system of race based chattel slavery. But, there have been many many different systems all throughout history. All different. Slavery is something that exists on a difficult to define continuum.<p>Many (most?) countries have laws for emoting foreigners. They usually have more limited rights compared to citizens. Deportation looms. Residency is tied to employment. The country is not run <i>for them.</i> When it's a Belgian professor teaching in Russia, it obviously isn't slavery. When it's this poor Nepali man in Qatar isn't. There just isn't a clear line between the two. Contracts? Consent? What do those mean when you have the power differences between a Qatari Sheik and an illiterate.<p>Qatar is comparable in a lot of ways to ancient slave states. There are a small minority (2-5% depending on how you define it) of extremely privileged aristocracy, members of important families. Another 10% of Qatari citizens who make up most of the the professional class. The foreign professional class (10-15%) of mostly arabs and whites. They have fewer rights, but are materially well off. Then a vast underclass (50-60%) of poor foreigners with no rights and practical situations ranging from bad to awful. Work to death conditions. Sexual assault. Chattel-like system of employer-employee relations. Probably similar distributions to famous slave states like Sparta.
Slavery in Qatar has nothing to do with religion.<p>This is the equivalent of taking some example of modern day slavery (say the 20 million alleged <a href="http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/06/19/19042103-modern-day-slavery-state-dept-says-millions-of-human-trafficking-victims-go-unidentified?lite" rel="nofollow">http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/06/19/19042103-modern-d...</a>) and then saying this is part of US history.<p>Saying slavery is inherently Islamic is like saying slavery is inherently American. And then for proof, going over centuries of quotes about slaves, beatings of slaves, violence during desegregation and the whole entire ugly history of race relations.<p>Anyone remotely well read knows this is absurd. That what is happening is a matter of individual greed and not some systemic mind control.
Sounds like <a href="http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/17/indias-200-million-strong-dalit-community-faces-discrimination-every-da/" rel="nofollow">http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/17/indias-200-million...</a>
Seems to be the case across the surrounding region<p><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/johann-hari/the-dark-side-of-dubai-1664368.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/johann-hari...</a>
This is heartbreaking, but I'm having a hard time seeing the HN angle, except that there was another thread on the same subject earlier today. I suggest this is more suitable fare for Reddit.
Seems a dead horse at this point, but this was common-place in Saudi Arabia where I grew up. Migrant workers from Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, the Phillipines (from memory) and elsewhere were notoriously mistreated.<p>My mother worked at a TV & Radio broadcast station for a (...the) major oil company there (side job, father was in oil @ same company), and found out the janitorial staff in her building were going both unpaid and unfed during their workdays for months at a time. I remember helping her with food-drives to pull food from expat communities for them.<p>It was well known to expat kids running around on-compound that 'gardeners' (generally bangladeshi and nepalese) were absolutely second-class citizens. These people were absolutely degraded at the hands of Saudi nationals and expats of a variety of ethnicities and nationalities (yes, westerners too). I've seen them yelled & cursed at, spit on, and beaten by company Security officers (generally al-Dossari Saudi's, but not always). The horror stories are literally countless.<p>There seems to have been a lot of discussion in this thread as to the effect that religion has played as a cause of this treatment of migrant workers. I DO NOT know (nor believe) that Islam has a direct role to play, but I can say confidently that this is a reflection of culture. There is a general acceptance of inherent difference in levels of humanity that is tied to national (and tribal) identities in many Middle Eastern countries. I would wager that the majority of the population (at the time I was living there, demographics change fast, and there are a boatload of young people in KSA) would tell you that a Sri Lanken / Bangladeshi / Pakistani != a Brit / American / Frenchmen, etc., and not feel that bad about it.<p>As I observed it, some of these people believed this as coldly as it is stated above, while a great many see it as a fact the whole world thinks this, but their culture/mindset is 'realistic' (<i>shudders</i>) or honest enough to admit it.<p>I DO NOT believe this is simply a 'rich taking advantage of poor' scenario. In my experience, these people are mistreated far worse than necessary for profit, or probably quite often to the detriment of it. I think it has more to do with cultural definitions of identity than anything else.
We have to end this now:
<a href="http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/06/19/19042103-modern-day-slavery-state-dept-says-millions-of-human-trafficking-victims-go-unidentified?lite" rel="nofollow">http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/06/19/19042103-modern-d...</a>
If CIA wanted Qatar's Royal family gone, they'd ship 50,000 AKs, pick a few leaders from each ethnic group and Viva La Revolucion! Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of folks