Qatar: Nepali workers expelled for ‘prohibited, illicit activity’

Amnesty International has actually implicated Qatar of apprehending lots of migrant workers and expelling them last month after informing them they were being required evaluated for the brand-new coronavirus.

Qatar’s federal government rejected the claims, stating the repatriated migrant workers had actually been discovered to be “engaged in illegal and illicit activity” revealed throughout assessments performed to stop the spread of COVID-19, the extremely contagious breathing illness triggered by the pathogen.

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In its report released on Wednesday, Amnesty stated it had actually spoken with 20 men from Nepal who were nabbed by Qatari cops on March 12 and 13.

According to t he UK-based rights group, the cops informed “most of the men that they were going to be tested for COVID-19 and would be returned to their accommodation afterwards. Instead, they were taken to detention centres and held in appalling conditions for several days, before being sent to Nepal”.

“None of the men we spoke to had received any explanation for why they were treated this way, nor were they able to challenge their detention or expulsion,”  stated Steve Cockburn, Amnesty’s deputy director of global problems.

“After spending days in inhumane detention conditions, many were not even given the chance to collect their belongings before they were put on planes to Nepal.”

Since Wednesday, Qatar had actually performed almost 54,550 tests for coronavirus, leading to more than 3,700 favorable cases. The nation has actually likewise signed up 7 coronavirus-related deaths to date.

In March, the federal government sealed a big area of the Enterprise zone, home to a a great deal of foreign building workers, after “early testing indicated a cluster of coronavirus cases” in the location.

In a declaration reacting to Amnesty’s claims, the Qatari federal government’s interactions office stated: “Throughout regular assessments as part of the federal government’s coronavirus control procedures, authorities revealed people participated in prohibited and illicit activity. This consisted of the manufacture and sale of prohibited and restricted compounds, together with the sale of hazardous food items that might seriously threaten the health of people if taken in.

“The individuals were repatriated to their country of citizenship in accordance with Qatar’s legal system. The discovery of illegal activities preceded the Industrial Area public health quarantine.”

Amnesty stated the men were “crammed on to buses, and taken to a detention facility in the Industrial Area where their documents and mobile phones were confiscated, before having their photographs and fingerprints taken”.

One Nepali guy informed Amnesty that the prison was full of people and they were “given one piece of bread each day, which was not enough”.

In its declaration, the Qatari federal government knocked the “unfounded allegations”, stating they “distort the reality of the public health response and fail to acknowledge the numerous measures introduced to protect the wellbeing of citizens and residents”.

Qatar and its labour laws have actually been under the spotlight since the nation was called the host of the 2022 FIFA WorldCup Its federal government has actually promised to resolve labour conflicts in the run- as much as the competition.

Qatar’s Federal government Communications Office informed Al Jazeera in 2015 that  the nation “has made substantial progress on labour reforms and it continues to work with NGOs, including the International Labour Organization, to ensure that these reforms are far-reaching and effective”. 

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