Qatar: hundreds of migrants employed in the security sector have reported abuses during the World Cup but are unable to obtain justice

ROME – An investigation of Amnesty International sheds light on the serious violations involving hundreds of migrant workers employed in the security sector. Many of the people involved, coming from Nepal, Kenya, Ghana, were hired through Teyser Security Servicesa privately held company based in Qatar. Amnesty he examined the employment contracts, the voice recordings with the recruiters, the correspondence between the job offers and what the workers actually obtained and a picture emerges of abuses for which justice has not yet been done.

No refunds and false promises. The men were hired to work for three months and arrived in Qatar in mid-October 2022. Most of them incurred expenses between 200 and 600 dollars, including travel costs, Covid-19 tests, Teyseer fees, courses training that should have been paid. Job offer letters viewed by Amnesty Iinternational confirm that the Teyser Security Services it had pledged to pay all costs related to recruitment and travel, but six months after the end of the World Cup, no workers have yet been reimbursed.

The testimonials. “I had to take out a $400 loan to go to work in Qatar during the World Cup and I’m still paying it because what I earned wasn’t enough,” says Marcus, 33, who moved for three months from Ghana to Doha. All workers interviewed by Amnesty they denounced the false promises made by the agency during the recruitment phase. Like suggesting they could have taken on more senior roles and earned an extra $275 a month, or stayed working in Qatar beyond their three-month contract period and earned potential bonuses. Once in Qatar, however, none of this materialized. Richard, a 24-year-old from Ghana, worked at a training camp and said: “I paid almost $700 before going to Qatar and they gave me $1,500, so I actually only made $780. I would have gotten more if I stayed in Ghana. I lost my previous job to move and when I came back I was out of money and out of work.”

Long working hours and no weekly rest. More than a third of the men interviewed, particularly those employed as guards, said they worked 12-hour days for up to 38 consecutive days without ever resting or receiving overtime pay – treatment that violates Qatari law.

Reporting abuse. These violations have resulted in many of the workers recruited from teyseer to protest on several occasions while in Qatar. Some have referred to Amnesty International to have reported everything to the World Cup Grievances Hotline (a FIFA grievance mechanism) in November, but no action was taken. Indeed, many of them were threatened by Teyseer’s managers with reprisals if they continued to complain.

No recourse to justice. On-site sources consulted by Amnesty confirm that it is teyseer that FIFA had been made aware of the abuses, yet neither organization took effective action to adequately address these issues and ensure justice. Qatar has introduced grievance mechanisms, but only for workers who are in the country. With no way to enforce their rights remotely, and with the only possibility of leaving the country once the three-month period was over, the migrants who worked for the World Cup were effectively denied the justice.