The draft law regulating the work of sponsored people is out already and I do not have any objection to that. The question arises now is that: why these laws are not giving attention to the national sponsors, the owners of the land whose a number of them are becoming victims of these laws issued by the by Ministry of Interior.
My hope is that the new draft law will exempt housemaids, given the fact that the final version of the law has not been produced yet. The bill will be made into law only when the Advisory Council approves it. I am sure that the council will approve it as goes its tradition.
Why does the new draft law is not exempting sponsors and employers from providing with ticket to their runaway employee?
Sponsors bear every possible pain to train drivers, for example, and make them know roads and deferent places in the country and streets after they arrive here from their countries, not knowing anything.
The same drivers escape their sponsors and employers immediately after they get enough training and information. Then sponsors and employers are required to pay for their tickets when they escape to let them go back home, as if they should be rewarding them for running away.
Why there is no law that reduces the highest cost for recruitment of housemaids to QR5,000, instead of QR15,000?
Supposing that these laws are only made so, to please the President of the International Football Association (FIFA) Joseph Blatter, one again in the future we will discover that he will never be happy whatever we do, and we can even discover new things in the future we have to fulfill.
Why are we then threatened that Qatar may be deprived of hosting the World Cup 2022 after Qatar’s file was well-studied and the country was granted the right to organize the championship?
Qatar was granted this right in the presence of its labour laws as well as other things, including its weather, for which we have set solutions. What else do these people want from us then?
Some people may jump to the conclusion that what happens now has nothing at all to do with the World Cup. To these people I say “no”, what is happening now is strongly connected with the World Cup and the evidence for that is the statements of Blatter at the same day the draft law announced here in Qatar. Even before being discussed by the Advisory council.
Blatter said he backed reforms initiated by the Qatar government regarding the situation of workers, as if Fifa is another Security Council we should be afraid of, while totally disregarding the Qatari citizens whose salaries are spent on housemaids and accumulating debts.
Now, we are giving housemaid chance to get the better of us only for the sake of the World Cup. Is this is the surprising news that Minister of Foreign Affairs promised?
The cost of recruiting housemaid is even higher than the average of the salary of any Qatari, let alone other money spent on medical examinations and residential permit. The same housemaid may decides to leave the work came for after three months and helpless employers have to pay for her ticket, or he will be blacklisted. If they are blacklisted, employers are not given any more visas, this is if the punishment has not been doubled.
Now, Blatter, you need to know this and defend our rights, or you can threaten to deprive us from hosting the World Cup whatever you want.
We pay 4,500 riyals for each housemaid including her salary, accommodation and food, not to mention the money paid for her recruitment. As well as the money paid for residential permit renewal every year and the medical checkup and treatments.
Not included things are the money spent on clothes, transportations, entertainment, family travels, mobile phone, shopping, and tips. Now, you can imagine how much a Qatari family spends on housemaid every year, given the fact that each Qatari home has at least two to three housemaid and a drivers.
Nobody can reduce any amount of money from the salaries of housemaid. On the contrary, these salaries must be increased every month. This is never the case with any citizen in this country. A large number of citizens are even in jail now because of their debts.
There can be some mistakes on people who mess with the wealth of the nation and who are given hundreds of visas to sell them however they want every year. These people leave the workers they bring in out in the open to commit crimes and illegal activities. Other people do not pay the workers their salaries and even treat them badly. These people deserve to be punished. But average Qataris should not be allowed to pay for the mistakes of these people.
Why should a citizen be fined 50,000 riyals only for keeping the passport of his/her domestic worker?
We do not want to keep the salaries of the domestic worker, but how else can we guarantee our rights, particularly if these workers steal something from us or commit a crime and then escape with their passports? Should citizens spend their whole lives searching for these workers again, particularly if the governments of their countries do not recognize Interpol?
I have hopes that the draft law will be reconsidered because it does not serve citizens, but only serves the best interests of servants.
