Migrant workers abused in Qatar as Malawi recruit job seekers

Malawians being recruited to work as cleaners and taxi drivers in the Middle Eastern Country of Qatar and United Arab Emirates (UAE) risk of being abused and exploited there, if the findings of the Amnesty International are anything to go by.

The Amnesty has issued a report revealing, among others, abuse of migrant workers in the Middle Eastern country of Qatar.

Meanwhile, the Job Centre says it has been engaged by its clients to recruit candidates from Malawi for cleaning jobs in Qatar and United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The Job Centre, which claims to have offices in Tama House and Galaxy House in Lilongwe and Blantyre respectively is looking for 100 female and male cleaners to be exported to Qatar, 50 cleaners and 150 taxi drivers to UAE.

Qater migrant workers are being “treated like animals”.
Qater migrant workers are being “treated like animals”.

According to one of the adverts carried in one of the daily papers, the candidates should be aged between 21 and 35 years and be educated to minimum Junior Certificate of Education (JCE) and should have good command of English language (both written and spoken).

It says successful candidates will be required to pay a recruitment service charge to the Job Centre while air tickets and visas will be arranged for the successful candidates, according to the Job Centre.

Cleaners that will be exported to Qatar will be entitled to monthly salary of QRS 650 plus guaranteed overtime, free food, accommodation, medical insurance and free transport to and from work. While in UAE they will be given monthly salary of Dhs 800, free food and accommodation, medical insurance and free transport to and from work as well.

But this recruitment exercise comes at a time when the Amnesty has revealed that migrant workers are subjected to non-payments of wages, dangerous working conditions and squalid accommodation.

The report also includes testimony from Nepalese workers claiming they were “treated like cattles”, working up to 12 hours a day, seven days a week.

It further reveals alarming level of exploitation and some of the abuses amounted to forced labour in the Middle Eastern Country of Qatar.

“It is simply inexcusable one of the richest countries in the World, that so many migrant workers are being ruthlessly exploited, deprived of their pay and left struggling to survive,” reads the report in part.

Amnesty conducted interviews with 120 workers, employers and government officials for its report titled, “The Dark Side of Migration: Spotlight on Qatar Ahead of 2022 World Cup”.

There was not immediate reaction from the Job Centre’s Managing Consultant on Amnesty’s findings.

Malawi Congress of Trade Union (MCTU) earlier cautioned government to tread carefully on sending Malawians to work in the Middle East Countries.

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