Migrant Abuse: MEPs Plan Qatar Trip after Damning Resolution

[unhappycamper]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/eu-delegation-to-visit-qatar-after-resolution-on-migrant-worker-abuse-a-935144.html



Amid ongoing criticism over the treatment of migrant workers in Qatar, the European Parliament has announced it will send a delegation to the 2022 World Cup host. On Thursday, MEPs issued a resolution condemning conditions for these workers in the Gulf state, though Doha called the resolution "premature."

Migrant Abuse: MEPs Plan Qatar Trip after Damning Resolution
November 22, 2013 – 05:14 PM

The European Parliament is expected to send a delegation to Qatar next spring after passing an emergency resolution condemning the treatment of migrant workers in the Gulf state. The issue has come to a head as major construction work gathers pace ahead of the soccer World Cup in 2022, which the country will host.

In addition to the Qatari government, which has dismissed the resolution as "premature," MEPs are also looking to the world and European governing soccer bodies, FIFA and UEFA, for answers.

The center-right European People's Party (EPP) bloc, however, ensured that Thursday's resolution stopped short of calling for an end to the "kafala" system of sponsorship, whereby workers are tied to their employers and not allowed to leave the country without permission. This has led some, including footballer Zahir Belounis, to become stuck in Qatar.

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The issue hit the headlines last month when Britain's Guardian newspaper reported that 70 Nepalese workers have died since the beginning of 2012 after working in allegedly slave-like conditions on Qatari construction sites.