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Revealed: Qatar's World Cup 'slaves'

theguardian.com

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Re: Revealed: Qatar's World Cup 'slaves'

#31

Post by yapcguy »

vowelless wrote: post #19

As referenced to in the article and highly relevant, the Kafala System [1] which has roots in Islamic adoption jurisprudence [2]. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kafala_system [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_adoptional_jurisprudenc...

Wow, only 6% of the labor force is made up of locals. Basically the Qataris sit back and let workers from the rest of the world do 94% of the country's work. Which begs the question, what exactly do Qataris do all day?!

>"Under the state-run kafala sponsorship system, workers are also unable to change jobs or leave the country without their sponsor company's permission." (Guardian)

> About 1.2 million foreign workers in Qatar, mostly from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Indonesia and the Philippines, make up 94 percent of the labor force. There are nearly five foreign workers for each Qatari citizen, mostly housemaids and low-skilled workers. (Link 1 above)

Re: Revealed: Qatar's World Cup 'slaves'

#32

Post by suhailpatel »

A very similar article was written 4 years ago in The Independent about Dubai and as far as I know nothing has changed. Definitely worth a read to find out about a very similar culture of modern day slavery

'The Dark Side of Dubai': http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/johann-hari...

Re: Revealed: Qatar's World Cup 'slaves'

#33

Post by cshenoy »

morgante wrote: post #22

As someone who lives in the Emirates, I have to object to the allegation of "slaves." This is not slavery. It's indentured servitude, which is definitely distressing but not quite of the same character. Most importantly, in the talks I've had with workers, the vast majority of them still are happy to have these jobs despite the conditions. They're paid an order of magnitude more than they make in Nepal and if you go…

Indentured servitude is debt bondage made explicitly so (contractually). When a worker says, "we were compelled to come just to make a living, but we've had no luck", that seems like they've been tricked into working as indentured servants without prior knowledge.

Re: Revealed: Qatar's World Cup 'slaves'

#34

Post by koenigdavidmj »

morgante wrote: post #22

As someone who lives in the Emirates, I have to object to the allegation of "slaves." This is not slavery. It's indentured servitude, which is definitely distressing but not quite of the same character. Most importantly, in the talks I've had with workers, the vast majority of them still are happy to have these jobs despite the conditions. They're paid an order of magnitude more than they make in Nepal and if you go…

The article is talking about their not being paid, which means we're back into slavery again. Indentured servitude is also banned in the civilised world, so that's probably not a good way to defend yourself.

Re: Revealed: Qatar's World Cup 'slaves'

#35

Post by bayesianhorse »

One of the appalling details is that these abuses to the individual don't make a dent in anyone's profit. Really, how many workers do you have to deny water to, in order to make up for even one worker's salary?

I allege that this is actually a symptom of corruption. Starting with poor labor laws at the top, down to poor enforcement of probably already poor corporate policies on the ground.

I don't really believe that this situation is even to the best interest of the companies (excepting maybe the slave driving contractors on the bottom).

Re: Revealed: Qatar's World Cup 'slaves'

#36

Post by Samuel_Michon »

yapcguy wrote: post #31
vowelless wrote: post #19

As referenced to in the article and highly relevant, the Kafala System [1] which has roots in Islamic adoption jurisprudence [2]. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kafala_system [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_adoptional_jurisprudenc...

Wow, only 6% of the labor force is made up of locals. Basically the Qataris sit back and let workers from the rest of the world do 94% of the country's work. Which begs the question, what exactly do Qataris do all day?! >"Under the state-run kafala sponsorship system, workers are also unable to change jobs or leave the country without their sponsor company's permission." (Guardian) > About 1.2 million foreign workers…

As is the case in all the Persian Gulf oil states. You didn’t think the sheikhs themselves would get their hands dirty, did you? They’ve got Pakistanis for that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_trafficking_in_Pakistan#A...

Re: Revealed: Qatar's World Cup 'slaves'

#37

Post by bayesianhorse »

crazygringo wrote: post #17
jlgreco wrote: post #2

From the article: • Evidence of forced labour on a huge World Cup infrastructure project. • Some Nepalese men have alleged that they have not been paid for months and have had their salaries retained to stop them running away. • Some workers on other sites say employers routinely confiscate passports and refuse to issue ID cards, in effect reducing them to the status of illegal aliens. • Some labourers say they have…

I'm not sure it's helpful to call this actual slavery. Actual slavery is when human beings are legally owned by others. This is not actual slavery, but it is atrocious working conditions and very serious human rights violations. The conditions may approach slave-like conditions, so there's good reason to use the word, but quotation marks are probably accurate. This is journalism, after all, not propaganda. (But, you…

It might very well be actual slavery. The "recruiters" are probably not employees of the company that commissions the labor, instead they are selling these men to companies who then "rent" them out.

This comes very close to a proprietary relationship, and it's even partly supported by the legal system which helps to keep the workers/slaves in their miserable "employment" relationship.

Re: Revealed: Qatar's World Cup 'slaves'

#38

Post by jlgreco »

nols wrote: post #21
jlgreco wrote: post #2

From the article: • Evidence of forced labour on a huge World Cup infrastructure project. • Some Nepalese men have alleged that they have not been paid for months and have had their salaries retained to stop them running away. • Some workers on other sites say employers routinely confiscate passports and refuse to issue ID cards, in effect reducing them to the status of illegal aliens. • Some labourers say they have…

I don't think your point is clear here. It seems from comments that people think you think The Guardian is using "slave" incorrectly, while it seems like you object to the use of quotes around the word.

Your take on my objection is correct.

Re: Revealed: Qatar's World Cup 'slaves'

#39

Post by at-fates-hands »

icecreampain wrote: post #4

This is shocking... how? The arab empire was built on the slave trade. The whole of Dubai exists solely due to external workers, from engineers to the bricklayers. This should not shock anyone.

The only shocking thing is how we in the US put up with this behavior from governments we send billions in aid to every year. You'd think we'd have the balls to suspend some their aid and have them put an end to this type of abuse.

Re: Revealed: Qatar's World Cup 'slaves'

#40

Post by jlgreco »

bsullivan01 wrote: post #30
jlgreco wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Scare quotes are quotation marks placed around a word or phrase to imply that it may not signify its apparent meaning or that it is not necessarily the way the quoting person would express its concept. Thus, the quotes are used to establish a use–mention distinction, in a similar way as verbally prefixing a phrase with "so-called". When referred to as "scare quotes", the quotation marks are suggested to imply skepti…

Well, to be exact they are not real slaves http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery , at least in the way slavery existed in USA.

See: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6446535
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