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Year before Qatar World Cup, Amnesty urges end to labour abuses

AFP

A year before the World Cup in Qatar, Amnesty International Tuesday urged the energy-rich emirate to end abuses against migrant workers, many of whom built the tournament’s infrastructure.

“The daily reality for many migrant workers in the country remains harsh, despite legal changes introduced since 2017,” the London-based human rights group said.

It urged Qatar to abolish the so-called kafala sponsorship system which bonds foreign labourers to employers, making them more vulnerable to abuses such as late- and non-payment of wages.

“Apparent complacency by the authorities is leaving thousands of workers at continued risk of exploitation by unscrupulous employers, with many unable to change jobs and facing wage theft,” said Mark Dummett, Amnesty’s global issues programme director.

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“They have little hope of remedy, compensation or justice. After the World Cup, the fate of the workers who remain in Qatar will be even more uncertain.”

Amnesty also said “authorities have done little to investigate the scale of unexplained deaths” arguing there was evidence of links to unsafe working conditions.

It charged that foreign labourers have scarce access to justice and are banned from organising to fight for their rights.

Qatar has previously faced criticism for its treatment of migrant workers, with campaigners accusing employers of exploitation and forcing labourers to work in dangerous conditions.

– ‘Work in progress’ –

Qatar authorities insist they have done more than any country in the region to improve worker welfare, and reject international media reports about thousands of migrant workers’ deaths.

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“Qatar rejects Amnesty’s assertion that labour reforms have not translated into changes on the ground for hundreds of thousands of migrant workers,” its Government Communications Office said in a statement.

More than 240,000 workers had successfully changed jobs since barriers were removed in September 2020, and more than 400,000 had directly benefited from a new minimum wage, it said.

Qatar pointed to other reforms, including new visa centres in countries of origin, that had “significantly reduced exploitative practices”, and an extended ban on summer working “to minimise the effects of heat stress”.

“Qatar has never shied away from acknowledging that its labour system is still a work in progress,” it added.

Amnesty acknowledged that Qatar had made positive reforms since 2017, also including limits on working hours for live-in domestic workers, labour tribunals and a fund to support payment of unpaid wages.

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But the rights group charged that “a failure to implement” some of the reforms “means exploitation continues”.

“Qatar is one of the richest countries in the world, but its economy depends on the two million migrant workers who live there,” Dummet said.

“By sending a clear signal that labour abuses will not be tolerated, penalising employers who break laws and protecting workers’ rights, Qatar can give us a tournament that we can all celebrate. But this is yet to be achieved.”

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International

Trump to sign over 200 executive orders, declaring National Emergency at U.S.-Mexico Border

Donald Trump will sign over 200 executive orders this Monday, including declaring a national emergency at the southern U.S. border and designating Mexican drug cartels as terrorists on his first day as president, according to U.S. network Fox News.

A senior administration official familiar with the executive actions Trump will sign, and who was authorized to inform the media according to Fox News, said that the president will sign multiple “omnibus” executive orders, each containing dozens of significant actions.

The source indicated that Trump will declare a national border emergency, order the U.S. military to work with the Department of Homeland Security to fully secure the southern border, and make it a national priority to eliminate all criminal cartels operating on U.S. soil. This version of the emergency declaration had previously been reported by CNN News and was also confirmed to The Wall Street Journal on Sunday.

According to Fox News, Trump will close the border to all undocumented foreign nationals through a proclamation. He will also create task forces for national security protection, working with officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and other agencies to “completely eradicate the presence of criminal cartels.”

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International

Trump appoints Stallone, Voight, and Gibson as special ambassadors to Hollywood

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump announced on Thursday the appointment of actors Sylvester Stallone (‘Rocky’) and Jon Voight (‘Midnight Cowboy’), as well as actor and director Mel Gibson (‘Braveheart’) as special ambassadors to the “very problematic” Hollywood.

“They will help me as special envoys to make Hollywood, which has lost many overseas businesses in the last four years, COME BACK BIGGER, BETTER, AND STRONGER THAN EVER,” he posted on his social media platform, Truth Social.

The Republican lamented all the “problems” he claims Hollywood faces and created this role with the aim of improving the situation from a business perspective.

“These three talented men will be my eyes and ears. I will do whatever they suggest,” he said.

Stallone had previously described Trump as the second George Washington, the first U.S. president (1789–1797) and one of the nation’s founding fathers, during a dinner after his victory in the November presidential elections, where he served as the master of ceremonies.

Meanwhile, Gibson attacked Trump’s rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, accusing her of having “the IQ of a fence.”

The Republican leader will be sworn in as president on January 20 on the steps of the U.S. Capitol, succeeding Democrat Joe Biden.

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International

Latin American and Caribbean diplomats voice concern over U.S. mass deportation plan

Diplomatic chiefs from ten Latin American and Caribbean countries expressed their “serious concern” over the announcement of a mass deportation of migrants, a measure they consider incompatible with human rights, according to a joint statement released this Friday.

The statement, which does not attribute the measure to any specific country, refers to the announcement made by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who has promised to carry out the largest foreign deportation operation in the history of the nation once he takes office next Monday. “The announcements of mass deportations are a serious cause for concern, especially due to their incompatibility with the fundamental principles of human rights and their failure to effectively address the structural causes of migration,” the statement said, released by Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE).

The signing countries—Brazil, Belize, Colombia, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, and Venezuela (almost all migrant-sending nations)—also committed to “defend the human rights of all migrants.”

This includes “rejecting the criminalization of migrants at all stages of the migration cycle” and “protecting them as a priority from transnational organized crime that profits from migration,” the document adds.

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