HE the Chairperson of the National Human Rights Committee (NHRC) Maryam bint Abdullah al-Attiyah confirmed that more than 400,000 workers changed their employers since the abolition of the sponsorship system in Qatar. During a meeting with Secretary-General of Amnesty International Agnes Callamard in London, she underlined that the NHRC's reports and its monitoring of the conditions of workers' rights in Qatar and the follow-up of statistics showed the extent of development in the protection of workers' rights in Qatar, noting that the right to change employers has become a reality for hundreds of thousands of migrant workers.
The NHRC chairperson added that despite this development, from the committee's point of view and through the petitions it received and the monitored statistics, there are some challenges to solve during the coming period. She expressed the committee's praise for the efforts of the Ministry of Labour to protect wages and the efforts of the labour dispute settlement committees, as well as the issuance of Law No. 18 of 2018 to establish a fund to support workers, and the significant and important role played by the fund in paying arrears of wages, and providing humanitarian, social, health and food support to vulnerable workers in certain circumstances.
HE al-Attiyah indicated that one of the recent procedural developments was the Ministry of Labour's launch of the "one platform for complaints and communications" available to all workers electronically, pointing out that workers can resort to the Labor Department to settle disputes, and the department refers disputes to dispute settlement committees if they are unable to resolve them amicably. During her meeting with the Secretary-General of Amnesty International, the NHRC chairperson expressed the committee's desire and aspiration for greater co-operation in cases and the exchange of information, including the exchange of reports and comments on them.