The Ministry of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs (MADLSA) has issued a clarification on a video circulating on social media about a domestic workers’ accommodation belonging to a licensed recruitment agency in Qatar.

In a notice posted on its Twitter page, the ministry explained what actually happened and how the truth was distorted by an individual.
The notice said an inspection visit to the said accommodation revealed that there were two separate housing units – one for domestic workers who have been returned to the agency and another for newly arrived domestic workers. 
After an “emergency technical failure” in the electricity supply led to a power outage in the building housing returned domestic workers, those staying there were immediately shifted to the other accommodation temporarily – until the power supply was restored, the MADLSA notice said. This caused the second accommodation to be crowded “for only a few hours”, it added.

Meanwhile, a domestic worker who was going to be sent back home - because she could not clear the medical examination – started filming the situation “for the purpose of blackmailing the agency to prevent it from taking the necessary procedures to send her back to her country”, the ministry said.
Upon the woman’s arrival in her country, she was contacted by a Philippine recruitment agency - which had a contract with a Qatari recruitment firm - after the video was published. “She confessed to her mistake and misbehavior. Then, she apologised for her actions that distorted the truth and reflected an untrue picture of what really happened,” the MADLSA noted.
The ministry stressed that it conducts inspection visits at recruitment agencies and their accommodation units to ensure that they comply with provisions of the Labour Law and its decisions.
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