Slave-like Conditions

Foreign maids, cleaners and other domestic workers are being subjected to slave-like labor conditions in Qatar, with many complaining they have been deprived of passports, wages, days off, holidays and freedom to move jobs, a Guardian investigation can reveal.

Hundreds of Filipino maids have fled to their embassy in recent months because conditions are so harsh. Many complain of physical and sexual abuse, harassment, long periods without pay and the confiscation of mobile phones.

The exploitation raises further concerns about labor practices in Qatar in advance of the World Cup, since domestic workers will play a big role in staffing the hotels, stadiums and other infrastructure that will underpin the 2022 tournament.

The Guardian investigation reveals:

• The Philippine Overseas Labour Office (POLO) sheltered more than 600 runaway maids in the first six months of 2013 alone.
• Some workers say they have not been paid for months.
• Many housemaids do not get days off.
• Some contracts and job descriptions are changed once the workers arrive in Qatar.
• Women who report a sexual assault can be charged with illicit relations.

The non-payment of wages, confiscation of documents and inability of workers to leave their employer constitute forced labor under UN rules. According to the International Labor Organization, forced labor is "all work which is exacted from someone under the menace of any penalty and for which the said person has not offered himself voluntarily".

"Menace of penalty" can include physical violence, deprivation of food and shelter, non-payment of wages, the inability to repay a loan, exclusion from future employment and removal of rights and privileges.

Qatari women and children followed by housemaid

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Qatar vigorously denies it is a "slave state" and is understood to be reviewing the controversial system that governs migrant labor, and to have stepped up inspections of businesses that use migrant labor. 

It said that non-payment of wages and confiscation of passports were illegal in Qatar, and added: 

"The vast majority of workers in Qatar – domestic or otherwise – work amicably, save money and send this home to improve the economic situation of their families and communities in their home countries."

But the Philippines-based OFW (Overseas Foreign Workers) Watch, which supports Filipino migrant workers, said physical abuse, delayed and refused salaries, the misrepresentation of employers and contracts and passport confiscations were common issues in Qatar.