IGAD workers’ unions call on Gulf states to emulate Qatar labour rights

A lobby of workers in the Horn of Africa region are calling on other Gulf counties to start labour reforms similar to those in Qatar as a long-term policy to protect labourers.

In the wake of reported abuse of domestic workers in the Gulf nations, the Horn of Africa Confederation of Trade Unions (HACTU) said on Friday there was a need for progressive reforms that will ensure workers from the Horn of Africa are protected wherever they work in the Gulf.

The lobby, an association of labour movements in eight countries that form the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), wrote to Qatar, asking that it shares its experience on reforms with peers in the neighbourhood to speed up labour rights reform.

They wrote to Qatari Minister for Labour, Dr Ali bin Samikh al-Marri to “help facilitate the protection of the rights of migrant workers from the eight Horn of Africa countries namely Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Djibouti, Eritrea and Uganda through bilateral and multilateral relations with other Gulf countries. “

The joint call says Qatar’s recent adjustments to migrant labour policies have been “progressive” and that it should be emulated by neighbours “in the Gulf region and the Arab World at large which receive hundreds of thousands of migrant workers from Africa and Horn of Africa Countries in particular.”

They made the call after their annual general meeting in Hawassa, southern Ethiopia. The meeting was sponsored by the International Labour Organization (ILO), the global body that watches over labour rights and policies across the UN member states.

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The HACTU is accredited to IGAD as an observer but the meeting came on the backdrop of reported abuse cases by Horn of Africa labourers in Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.

Last week, Kenyan authorities repatriated a woman who had travelled to Saudi Arabia to work as a domestic worker, only to fall sick and was denied access to adequate medical attention. 

For Qatar, however, the ILO says it has made progress on labour rights especially as it prepares to host the FIFA World Cup in November.

A previous report by rights watchdogs had accused Doha of overlooking violations such as long working hours, low wages and poor healthcare service for migrant workers in a country that has more than two million foreign employees.

A recent report by the ILO, however, said Qatar has made some changes including removing some restrictive elements of the kafala (sponsorship) system such as a requirement for exit permits were removed, and employees allowed to change employers without a requirement for no-objection certificates from their current employers. It also introduced a non-discriminatory minimum wage of $500, established wage protection monitors and workers’ support insurance fund as well as some workplace safety code.

As a result, “between September 2020 and March 2022, over 300,000 workers (including 7,000 domestic workers) changed jobs,” the ILO report says.

However, the country may still need to explain the actual reforms on the kafala system which has seen some employers still abuse it.

In other Gulf countries, the discrimination and enslavement still exists, something the lobby says should end. They said Qatar should also share reform experience with the Horn of Africa countries “to promote a conducive working environment for workers of our region.”

“We want to replicate the progressive labour reforms in Qatar in other Arab and Gulf countries which have poor laws,” said Kassahun Follo, the General Secretary of HACTU.

HACTU includes labour unions from all IGAD countries such as the Confederation of Ethiopia Trade Unions (CETU), Central Organization of Trade Unions – Kenya (COTU), Federation of Somali Trade Unions (FESTU), South Sudan Workers Trade Union Federation, Sudan Workers Trade Unions Federation, National Organisation of Trade Unions-Uganda, Djiboutian Union of Workers and National Confederation of Eritrean Workers.

In February this year, the unions had joined the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC-Africa), the continental workers’ body, on a fact-finding mission in which they said the country was improving on welfare of workers.

Officials of ITUC-Africa told journalists then that they were satisfied with the progress, including changing of labour laws to allow workers to change jobs without permission from current employers.

“ITUC-Africa welcomes the pieces of reform that the Qatari state has undertaken and considers them progressive,” the continental body’s General Secretary Kwasi Adu-Amankwah told a briefing.

(Additional Reporting by Aggrey Mutambo)