Qatar is a transit and destination country for men and women trafficked for the purposes of involuntary servitude and commercial sexual exploitation. Men and women from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Ethiopia, Sudan, Thailand, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and China voluntarily travel to Qatar as laborers and domestic servants, but subsequently face conditions indicative of involuntary servitude. These conditions include threats of serious harm, including financial harm; job switching; withholding of pay; charging workers for benefits for which the employer is responsible; restrictions on freedom of movement, including the confiscation of passports and travel documents and the withholding of exit permits; arbitrary detention; threats of legal action and deportation; false charges; and physical, mental and sexual abuse…
Today Assistant Press Secretary Carl Woog provided the following readout regarding Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel recent official visit to Qatar.
There Hagel reaffirmed support for this brutal and repressive regime.
“Secretary Hagel met this morning with His Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the Emir of Qatar, on his final stop of his five country visit. Secretary Hagel and the emir reaffirmed the defense cooperation and partnership between the United States and Qatar, underscored by the signing of the defense cooperation agreement by Secretary Hagel and Qatar Minister of State for Defense Affairs General Hamad bin Ali Al-Attiyah.
The defense cooperation agreement governs the interactions between U.S. and Qatari forces including training, exercises, and other cooperative activities. The agreement promotes cooperation and is a testament to the longstanding security partnership enjoyed by the United States and Qatar.
Secretary Hagel and the emir discussed regional security issues, including Iran, Syria, and Egypt. On Iran, Secretary Hagel emphasized the United States’ commitment to preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, and support for the joint plan of action with the P5+1. Secretary Hagel underscored the importance of Iran fulfilling its P5+international obligations, and the U.S. commitment to its posture in the region in support of its allies and partners.
On Syria, Secretary Hagel reiterated the United States’ commitment to a political solution in Syria, support of the Geneva II conference based on the Geneva communique; that Asad must go; the need to support the moderate opposition; and the importance of addressing the impact of the conflict on Syria’s neighbors. Secretary Hagel and the emir agreed to work together to achieve these goals.
Secretary Hagel and the emir also discussed the importance of deepening U.S. and Qatari defense ties, including defense purchases important to the security of both nations and regional security. Secretary Hagel discussed the minister of state for defense affairs’ participation in the GCC Defense Ministerial that Secretary Hagel announced in his remarks at the Manama Dialogue” (Source: DOD website: http://www.defense.gov/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=16415).
It should be noted that the state of human rights in Qatar remains a very serious concern for several non-governmental organizations.
According to Human Rights Watch in June 2012 hundreds of thousands of mostly poor and destitute South Asian migrant workers in construction in Qatar risk serious “exploitation and abuse, sometimes amounting to forced labor” (source: Article: Qatar: Migrant Construction worker face serious abuse http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/06/12/qatar-migrant-construction-workers-face-abuse).
Qatar enforces a strict death penalty policy, primarily for spying ,or other threats against national security.
Apostasy is also considered a capital offense, but there have been no recorded applications of the death penalty for this charge.
Amnesty International reports in 2012 that flogging of human beings is a common practice and is still used in Qatar as a penal sanction: “At least six men and women, all foreign nationals, were sentenced to floggings of either 40 or 100 lashes for offences related to alcohol consumption or ‘illicit sexual relations”.
See related video: Slave Labor in Qatar http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyIXgEGqhbc
Qatar is a transit and destination country for men and women trafficked for the purposes of involuntary servitude and commercial sexual exploitation.
Men and women from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Ethiopia, Sudan, Thailand, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and China voluntarily travel to Qatar as laborers and domestic servants, but subsequently face conditions indicative of involuntary servitude.
These conditions include threats of serious harm, including “financial harm; job switching; withholding of pay; charging workers for benefits for which the employer is responsible; restrictions on freedom of movement, including the confiscation of passports and travel documents and the withholding of exit permits; arbitrary detention; threats of legal action and deportation; false charges; and physical, mental and sexual abuse…”
See video: Qatar Sucks http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zR4sR8EdJwk).