NHRC Chairman: Recruiters to Blame for Workers' Problems

Colombo, December 11 (QNA) - A delegation from Qatar's National Human Rights Committee (NHRC), headed by Dr. Ali bin Smaikh Al Marri, took part on Tuesday in a roundtable in the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo. Addressing the audience, Al Marri said the NHRC delegation's visit to Sri Lanka aims to coordinate with counterpart institutions concerned with labor affairs. Al Marri blamed several challenges that face migrant workers on recruiters in labor-exporting countries, noting that some of them receive huge sums of money from workers prior to their arrival in Qatar, and give them false information about wages and financial dues. For his part, K. Velayutham, president of Sri Lanka's National Trade Union Federation, said very limited employment problems face Sri Lankan labor in Qatar, praising Qatari efforts in providing an appropriate environment for expatriate workers. He noted that Qatar is a regional model when it comes to protecting human rights in general and workers' rights in particular. During the discussion, the American Center for International Labor Solidarity's Arab Gulf program director said there is a remarkable progress in Qatar on legislation and laws that help improve labor conditions such as the human trafficking law and the decree on regulating labor recruitment offices. William Gois, Migrant Forum in Asia's (MFA) Regional Coordinator, has also praised Qatar's efforts to overcome procedural difficulties that expatriate workers face, adding that Qatar has done a lot to improve labor conditions. During the NHRC delegation's visit, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed with the committee's Sri Lankan counterpart, stipulating that the two sides shall work on capacity-building through training employees in the field of workers' rights, in addition to educating workers, employers, managers, contractors, and diplomatic missions concerned with workers' rights, legislation and international conventions issued by the International Labor Organization (ILO). (QNA)