The past decade has seen a number of historic labor reforms in Qatar.
Qatar and Bangladesh will cooperate and exchange experiences in the field of human rights as part of a new agreement signed between the two countries.
This took place during a meeting held between Qatar’s National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Secretary General Sultan bin Hassan Al Jamali and Bangladesh National Human Rights Commission Chairman Nasima Begum.
The NHRC has made great strides in connecting with foreign communities, including the Bengali community, one of the largest in the country, Al-Jamari stressed.
At the conference, Al Jamali raised awareness of the importance of Qatar’s NHRC in protecting and promoting the human rights of all residents and citizens subject to Qatar’s legal mandate, and offered support where needed. emphasized its efforts to provide
That’s because 60 workers were arrested after they took to the streets to protest six months of unpaid work in Qatar, according to Immigration Rights.
A large number of protesters were also deported from the Gulf countries for participating in the demonstration, which authorities said was a violation of public security laws.
Al-Jamari stressed the establishment of an expatriate community office at the organization’s headquarters as a planned and efficient way to connect with all residents.
Al Jamali noted that one of these offices was that of the Bengali community, which aims to spread awareness of human rights, particularly workers’ rights as enshrined in national law.
In addition to working with community leaders in Bangladesh to conduct awareness training sessions on rights and obligations, he also said that Qatar’s NHRC is working with 30 law firms to assist petitioners as needed. provided free legal advice to
Al Jamali said to help members of the Bangladeshi community better understand their rights and learn about legal options, the Qatari NHRC has issued a labor rights pamphlet in many languages, including Bengali. said he did.
As Gulf countries seek to fill their skilled manpower shortages, Qatar has shown interest in hiring semi-skilled workers trained from Bangladesh in the medical, hospitality, operations, construction and IT sectors, it said. the report said.
Qatar’s Labor Minister Ali Bin Saeed bin Al-Samik Al-Mali emphasized this at a separate meeting with the expatriate welfare and foreign affairs ministers in Dhaka this week.
“We proposed to set up a technical training center in Bangladesh and Qatar to provide skilled workers according to the demand in Qatar,” said Shahidul Alam, director general of the Department of Manpower, Employment and Training. told the standard.
He also noted that the Qatari minister is asking Bangladeshi workers to deal with their problems legally “instead of agitation if any of their rights are violated”. .
In a phone call between Bangladesh’s Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen and Qatar’s Labor Minister, the latter said the Gulf states were looking to hire more skilled workers from Bangladesh in the coming days.
Qatar has hired 12,344 workers from Bangladesh this year alone, compared to 11,158 last year, the Manpower, Employment and Training Department found.
Most of the workers are employed in the cleaning, driving and construction industries, according to the Bangladesh Employment Agency.
PricewaterhouseCoopers recently surveyed more than 1,500 Middle Eastern employees, and 60% in Qatar and 75% in Kuwait agreed their countries lacked skilled workers, the report said. detailing.
The Labor Minister praised Bangladeshi workers and pointed out that Qatar’s labor law had been amended. Al-Mali stressed that under the law, foreign workers would receive the same benefits as domestic workers.
This is a major milestone that the authorities have hailed as “historic” by the international community, as the Gulf states come under intense international scrutiny ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar. are being urged to clarify labor reforms.
