Amnesty International continues to see serious shortcomings in World Cup host country Qatar.
Despite government reforms, migrant workers in 2021 “continued to be subject to exploitation” and had “difficulties in freely changing jobs,” according to the human rights organization’s 2021/22 annual report.
Ahead of the World Cup finals this year (November 21-December 18), "the authorities further restricted the right to freedom of expression."
Women as well as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people (LGBTI+) were also "continued to be discriminated against both by law and in everyday life".
The emirate has been under criticism for years.
Reports of thousands of dead workers continue to cause loud criticism - especially from Europe.
The government of the emirate points to a number of reforms to improve the human rights situation and the conditions for foreign workers.
So Qatar dismantled the kafala system.
This system, which is also common in other countries in the region, binds foreign workers tightly to a local guarantor such as an employer.
Violators of the new laws would be rigorously prosecuted.
"exploitative practices"
"Despite assurances to the contrary, the government failed to introduce and implement reforms, which has allowed exploitative practices and the worst elements of the sponsorship system (kafala) to persist," Amnesty writes over the past few months.
The authorities also failed to "properly investigate the deaths of thousands of migrant workers who died suddenly and unexpectedly in recent years despite passing mandatory medical tests prior to entering Qatar."
This "omission" meant that Qatar "failed to protect a key element of the right to life, as it could not be determined whether the men's deaths were related to their working conditions".
In addition, the bereaved would be denied the opportunity to receive compensation from employers or the Qatari authorities.