By Andrew Warshaw
March 25 – European Parliament officials believe Qatar is already making up ground to get to grips to with the workers’ rights issue that has plagued 2022 World Cup organisers.
A six-strong delegation has just completed two-day tour of the gulf state, meeting various government entities as well as 2022 leaders. Although they were not comfortable with everything they saw, they expressed optimism that Qatar will get its house in order in the coming years, not least when it comes to employment laws for migrant workers.
“I want to highlight the openness of Qatari authorities to talk about this issue,” Portuguese member of the European People’s Party Mario David told a press conference in Doha. “We came to engage, not to patronise.
“We are aware of the very serious situation in Qatar. Only four per cent of workers are Qatari. This means a number of rules must be different. However the Kafala system raises huge questions. Sometimes there is a misuse and mismanagement of this system. We understand the authorities are planning to implement a new and very deep review of Kafala.”
“In different meetings we were told there will be a deep revision of the old system. We were told this in every meeting. We wait for these measures that show that, despite our trip, the Qatari authorities are taking this seriously.
“We visited the deportation center and while we were not happy with what we saw when we visited, I think we realise that there are a lot of laws that if completely implemented it would make the situation different.
“We hope the new laws will be in place by the time the peak workers are in Qatar, around 60,000 people. It is not up to us to announce what happens but we have been told in the not too distant future this reform will take place. We are not naïve; we know Qatar is very much in the spotlight. Qatar’s place in the spotlight is larger than the country’s place in the world.”
Britain’s Labour party Euro MP Richard Howitt added: “I welcome the commitment made to us there will be a fundamental reform.
“We say there should be an abolishment of exit visas. We want people to be able to change their employer without being penalised. We call for a change in sponsorship and recommend the government is the sponsor, not the employer.”
FIFA has put its German executive committee member Theo Zwanziger in charge of monitoring the situation on the ground in Qatar. Last week, Zwanziger reported that while uttering threats was not the right approach there was a “magnifying glass” over the 2022 hosts to ensure that the relevant changes are put in place.
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