Legislative reforms have ensured Qatar has established good practices in worker recruitment, according to Minister of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs H E Yousef bin Mohamed Al Othman Fakhro.
He said Qatar is working towards developing procedures that will entrench the principles of fair recruitment and combat all means of exploitation and deception, including methods that may lead to forced labour or human trafficking. He was speaking at a fair recruitment forum organised by the ministry in partnership with the ILO and US Department of State, in cooperation with Qatar Chamber (QC) and the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development.
Fakhro stated the forum was concerned with studying and reviewing the efforts exerted to ensure fair recruitment procedures and raising awareness of the Qatari labour law, which prohibits the imposition of recruitment fees on workers, as well as to ensure that workers do not bear any financial costs imposed by agencies and recruitment companies other than those provided for by law and adopt the necessary measures and procedures to ensure smooth, fair, transparent and legal employment.
He noted a number of agreements and MoUs have been signed with labour-exporting countries to achieve the highest standards and conditions of employment and fair recruitment, in line with international conventions and best regional and international practices in this regard.
He said: “We look forward to holding more workshops to raise awareness about the need to combat workers’ pay for recruitment fees and to cooperate in developing policies and tools, which will help address this problem by providing the necessary support on our part through the establishment of a voluntary technical working group composed of local national actors in the coming months. It will meet to discuss the progress made and discuss possible ways of cooperation in the application of labour laws in Qatar.”
Qatar Chamber First Vice Chairman Mohamed bin Ahmed bin Towar Al Kuwari said: “Qatari private sector companies and institutions are committed to laws and regulations pertaining to expatriate labour. We in Qatar are satisfied with the private sector’s response to labour market reforms. We have seen the full cooperation of local companies in implementing this legislation on the ground.”