Amending Labour Laws in GCC to Comply with ILO Conventions

Is Qatar on its way to make more reforms to entertain international labor migrants in line with ILO conventions or international human rights law?

Matters related to the social and civil rights of international labor migrants constitute one of the most important topics among public policymakers across the world. A lot of human rights and labor migrant rights advocates keep on criticizing the various policies of the nation-states in contrast to ILO Conventions and human rights treaties.

The total number of international labor migrants in the world exceeds 164 million [ ILO Estimate of 2017] which is almost 4% of the total population of the world. During the last few decades, most of the GCC countries had to face swear criticism for their inability to provide fair salaries, accommodations, food and working environment to the migrant workers.

According to Wikipedia, “Globally, the GCC countries are situated among the top twenty countries where non-nationals outnumber national citizens. Both Saudi Arabia and the UAE are among the top ten countries accommodating the largest migrant populations in the world, occupying fourth and fifth place respectively.

In Bahrain, Oman, Qatar and the UAE, the majority of the population comprises foreign laborers and in the latter two countries, this number is as high as 80%. Furthermore, 95% of the workers active in the domestic and construction sectors are migrant workers.”

Despite some criticism, this is also a fact that most of the labor migrants arrive in GCC after having full knowledge of the working conditions over there and few studies prove that they are happy as they are able to send a high volume of remittances to their countries of origin making the life of their families quite comfortable.

As per recent information published in Migration Policy Institute [MPI] in the UK, Qatar has recently amended its law which is possibly going to eradicate its notorious Kafala or sponsorship system. By satisfying the ILO, as per this new law, they are going to offer minimum wages covering all the workers from different nationalities in various sectors.

The law, which also requires that employers cover some food and housing expenses, is the first of its kind in the region, and will directly benefit more than 400,000 workers, ILO estimates. Last year, the government enacted reforms allowing workers to change jobs without their employer’s permission and removed the need to obtain an exit permit to leave the country.

By April, 119,000 migrant laborers had reportedly switched jobs”. Although the above steps seem to be taken to improve the competitiveness of Qatar in the wake of the FIFA world cup that is going to be convened next year, however, these steps are taken in the right direction at the right time.

We may imagine that Qatar and all other GCC countries will also take serious steps to rectify the international convention on the rights of migrant workers and all members of their families duly approved by the UN General Assembly in December 1990.

As of today, only 55 countries, mostly the poor migrant-sending countries have signed this treaty, making it one of the least signed treaties in the history of the UN.

Written by:

Shakeel A. Mian | Prudential Middle East Attorneys & Legal Consultants