AI Report Launched
23 April, 2014
The Qatari authorities are failing to protect migrant domestic workers who face severe exploitation, including forced labour and physical and sexual violence, Amnesty International said in a new report published on 23 April 2014.
‘My sleep is my break’: Exploitation of domestic workers in Qatar paints a bleak picture of women who have been recruited to work in Qatar on the basis of false promises about salaries and working conditions, only to be made to work extreme hours and seven-day weeks. Some women described how they were subjected to appalling episodes of sexual and physical violence.
Amnesty International Nepal organised a press conference on 23 April to launch the report. Chairperson of AI Nepal Shambhu Thakur said that Qatar should respect the human rights of migrant workers. On the occasion, Rameshwar Nepal, Director of AI Nepal, presented the findings of the report. The report was simultaneously launched in various parts of the world on the same day.
“Migrant domestic workers are victims of a discriminatory system that denies them basic protections and leaves them open to exploitation and abuse including forced labour and human trafficking,” said Audrey Gaughran, Amnesty International’s Global Issues Director.
“We have spoken to women who have been terribly deceived, then found themselves trapped and at the mercy of abusive employers, banned from leaving the house. Some women said they were threatened with physical violence when they told their employers they wanted to leave.”
There are at least 84,000 women migrant domestic workers in the Gulf state, mainly from South and South East Asia. Many are forced to work excessive hours. Researchers interviewed women working, in some cases, up to 100 hours per week, with no day off.
Click here for the English and Nepali version of Press Release distributed at the programme.