Monday 18 December 2017 08:04, UK
Nepali migrant workers involved in the construction of stadiums for the 2022 Qatar World Cup are being trapped in a “vicious cycle of debt and exploitation”, according to a report by Amnesty International.
The human rights organisation conducted a phone survey of 414 Nepali migrant workers, 88 per cent of whom reported that they had paid excessive, illegal fees to agents for their jobs overseas.
The majority of workers had to borrow more than half the sum from village moneylenders, forcing them into debt which was further compounded by not being paid their full wages.
More than half of the workers (53 per cent) surveyed by Amnesty claimed they received lower monthly salaries than the amount promised to them by recruitment agents.
"Nepali migrant workers are being systematically and mercilessly set up," said James Lynch, deputy director of Amnesty International's Global Issues Programme.
"Forced to take out loans to pay the huge fees recruitment agencies charge them to work abroad, they are left so indebted that they have no choice but to stay in jobs which often turn out to be low-paid or dangerous.
"The Nepali government's weak enforcement of the law is playing straight into the hands of extortionists and loan sharks.
"Migrant workers all too often end up trapped in the soul-destroying situation of working abroad for years simply to pay off the huge, often illegal fees they were charged to take the job.
"Tackling this exploitative industry is a matter of urgency."
