DOHA: Don’t catch workers who do not have identity (ID) cards or valid ID cards due to the fault of their employers, Qatar’s National Human Rights Committee (NHRC) has urged the Ministry of Interior.
The rights body has also requested the Interior Ministry to transfer the sponsorship of workers who are barred from work or traveling overseas due to financial debt. “Also, please allow victims of the (illegal) visa trade and employees of blacklisted companies to change their sponsorship,” the NHRC has said.
In a set of recommendations made to the interior ministry in its 2014 report on the human rights situation in the country, the NHRC said the detention centre must be expanded and healthcare facilities must be provided there.
Deportation centre is where foreign workers being repatriated home are detained. The NHRC has also urged the ministry to regularise the visa status of “free and loose workers” (workers like masons, carpenters, plumbers and electricians, among others, who are not employed by any company although sponsored by them and are available for freelance work).
And raids should be conducted on companies and if it is found that they have failed to get ID cards issued for their workers, such workers should be allowed to change their sponsorship, according to the rights panel.
The NHRC has also urged the ministry to set up a human rights office at Hamad International Airport (HIA) to help workers who have freshly arrived and may be facing some complications and monitor their situation.
The NHRC, in its recommendations made to the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, has on the other hand, asked it to enforce the clause of the labour law which asks private companies to set up joint committees of workers and owners to amicably settle worker-employer disputes and work for employees’ welfare.
The NHRC has also urged the labor ministry to open a unit at Hamad International Airport (HIA) to look into woes a newly-arrived worker might be facing.
To the Supreme Judicial Council the NHRC has said in its suggestions to provide more translators in courts. The NHRC said that its recommendations are aimed at enhancing the human rights situation in Qatar and support the organisations working in this field on regional and international levels.The Peninsula
