Doha: Qatar has arrested around 60 workers who staged a rare protest over unpaid salaries, and has begun deporting them, according to an NGO working for migrant workers’ rights.
Employees of Al Bandary Engineering and Electro Watt Company took to the streets on August 14 to stage a rare protest to demand six months’ unpaid salaries.
According to a tweet from Migrant Rights on Thursday, August 18, the protest started on Sunday, August 14, when close to 200 migrant workers had taken to the streets in the industrial area where many of them live.
As per the media reports, the employees had been promised wages on Thursday, August 11. It should be salary for work up to between four and six months, plus benefits at the end of the completed assignment.
Arrested workers told Migrant Rights that at least 25 to 30 people were being held in one room. “The arrested workers say that officials have switched off the AC, taunting them that if they can protest in the heat, they can manage without it,” Migrant Rights wrote on Twitter.
Equidem, a human rights NGO focused on workers’ rights in the Gulf, said it was concerned about reports that Qatar had arrested workers for peaceful protest.
On Thursday, Equidem took to Twitter and wrote, “Equidem is concerned that Qatar authorities have violated the right of these workers to strike and peaceful assembly. Some of these workers may have been subjected to ill-treatment in detention and have failed to ensure their employer pays the wages owed to them.”
“We remain concerned that despite the labour reforms, Qatar appears far more willing to enforce laws to suppress strikes and deport workers who complain about treatment, in violation of Qatar’s human rights treaty obligations, than punish companies that do not pay their workers,” Equidem added.
