Editing Politics of Qatar (section)

===Workers===
On 16 January 2020 Qatar announced that most migrant workers who previously required an exit permit to leave Qatar would no longer require one.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-01-20 |title=Qatar: End of Abusive Exit Permits for Most Migrant Workers {{!}} Human Rights Watch |url=https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/01/20/qatar-end-abusive-exit-permits-most-migrant-workers |access-date=2025-04-12 |language=en}}</ref>

Cases of ill-treatment of immigrant labour have been observed. The Nepalese ambassador to Qatar, Maya Kumari Sharma, described the emirate as an "open jail".<ref name=Guardian20130925>{{cite news|last=Pattisson|first=Pete|title=Revealed: Qatar's World Cup 'slaves'|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/25/revealed-qatars-world-cup-slaves|access-date=26 September 2013|newspaper=The Guardian|date=25 September 2013|quote=So entrenched is this exploitation that the Nepalese ambassador to Qatar, Maya Kumari Sharma, recently described the emirate as an "open jail".}}</ref>
Qatar does not have national occupational health standards or guidelines, and workplace injuries are the third highest cause of accidental deaths.<ref>{{cite web|title=Occupational health |url=http://www.nhsq.info/strategy-goals-and-projects/preventive-healthcare/occupational-health |publisher=National Health Strategy |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121216021558/http://www.nhsq.info/strategy-goals-and-projects/preventive-healthcare/occupational-health |archive-date=December 16, 2012 }}</ref> In May 2012, Qatari officials declared their intention to allow the establishment of an independent trade union.<ref name="unions">{{cite web|title=Qatar to allow trade union, scrap 'sponsor' system|date=May 2012 |url=http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/05/01/211482.html|publisher=Al Arabiya}}</ref> Qatar also announced it will scrap its sponsor system for foreign labour, which requires that all foreign workers be sponsored by local employers, who in some cases hold workers' passports and can deny them permission to change jobs.<ref name="unions"/>

In August 2022, 60 migrant workers were arrested and deported for protesting against the non-payment by their employer, Al Bandary International Group, a major construction and hospitality firm. Some of the demonstrators were from Nepal, Bangladesh, India, Egypt and the Philippines had not been paid for seven months.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Qatar deports migrant workers protesting alleged abuse before World Cup |language=en-US |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/23/qatar-2022-fifa-world-cup-migrant-protest/ |access-date=2022-10-04 |issn=0190-8286}}</ref> According to a report published by [[France 24]], those protesters were detained for breaching public security laws and minority of protesters were deported by the order of court who failed to remain peaceful and breached Qatar's public security law. Qatar's [[Ministry of Labour (Qatar)|labour ministry]] said it will pay Al Bandary workers and will take further action against the company which was already under investigation for failing to pay wages.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-08-23 |title=Qatar deports migrants after wage protest, rights group says |url=https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20220823-qatar-deports-migrants-after-wage-protest-rights-group-says |access-date=2022-10-04 |website=France 24 |language=en}}</ref>