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The Covid-19 pandemic left hundreds of thousands of migrant workers in Qatar extremely vulnerable as companies withheld pay, stopped providing basic necessities and dismissed workers with little warning, a new study found. Despite Qatar passing laws aimed at safeguarding the rights of migrant workers – who make up about 90 per cent of the population on the small peninsular nation – the rules are not being followed, according to the Equidem report, based on interviews with workers in the region. “Evidence gathered for this research shows that companies large and small and across industries are not complying with this directive,” the report said. “With limitations on the state’s capacity to enforce rights protections and limited access to justice, many migrant workers are in an extremely vulnerable position with no real ability to assert their rights or seek remedy for violations,” the report said. During the pandemic, the government allocated $824 million in loans to help co...

Human rights groups are calling for Qatar to stop criminalising sex outside marriage and end its aggressive enforcement of so called "love crimes", after it forced women on a Sydney-bound flight to undergo invasive medical examinations. Half of Qatar's imprisoned women jailed for sex outside marriage Mr Lynch previously investigated conditions for women in Qatar for Amnesty International, finding the majority of women in prison in the small Gulf state were foreign workers, with half jailed for so-called "love crimes". In Qatar, a conviction for "illicit relations" — meaning sex outside marriage — can lead to a prison sentence of up to seven years, although normally courts sentence women to one year in jail. "These are foreign women who were there, some of whom report being raped and who were put in prison because they were not believed," Mr Lynch said. "So it is not uncommon, particularly for women who work in houses as domes...

The Qatari government has signed new investment deals worth billions of dollars for the Turkish economy, including purchasing a luxury mall and buying a big chunk of shares in the Borsa Istanbul stock exchange, Middle East Eye has learned. The Qatari Investment Authority inked the purchasing deals as part of a bilateral trip by the Emir of Qatar Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani to Ankara on Thursday. He met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to join the 6th strategic summit between the two nations. 'We are at a point where it's actually hard to find new ways to co-operate. Our alliance is now very deep, from the defence sector to the economy' - Turkish official Among the investments, Qatar will acquire a 10 percent sharehold in the Borsa Istanbul from Turkey Wealth Fund, which controls more than 90 percent of the total shares.  Doha will also buy 42 percent of Istinye Park, a shopping mall in Istanbul, for a reported $1 billion from Turkey's Dogus H...

Companies in Qatar have failed to pay “hundreds of millions of dollars” in salaries and other benefits to low-wage workers since the coronavirus outbreak, according to new research by the human rights group Equidem. In its report , Equidem describes how thousands of workers have been dismissed without notice, put on reduced wages or unpaid leave, denied outstanding salary and end of service payments, or forced to pay for their own flights home. The report’s findings appear to amount to “wage theft” on an unprecedented scale, leaving “worker after worker” destitute, short of food and unable to send money home during the pandemic, in one of the richest countries in the world. “I came here to work for my family, not to be a beggar living on my own,” said a cleaner from Bangladesh, who said he had not received his salary for four months. In separate research , the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre found that unpaid or delayed wages were cited by workers in 87% of cases ...

Last month, on 16 October, an 18-year-old Moscow-born Chechen refugee, Abdullakh Anzorov, shocked the world by beheading the French teacher, Samuel Paty. This act of terror has both galvanised France and led to increased international tensions. France has suffered many and more bloody terror attacks. On 14 July 2016, in Nice, Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel deliberately drove a truck into crowds celebrating Bastille Day. His attack ended after an exchange of gunfire, during which he was shot and killed by police, but not before he had killed 86 people. The single deadliest attack was on 13 November 2015, when Islamic State staged three coordinated suicide attacks. A bomber struck outside the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, during a soccer match. There were then mass shootings and a suicide bombing at nearby cafés and restaurants. Gunmen carried out another mass shooting and took hostages at a concert in the Bataclan theatre, leading to a stand-off with police. The attackers were ...

Concerned over terrorism emanating from countries like Turkey and Pakistan, French Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Jordan Bardella has called for "real financial or trade sanctions" against Ankara, Islamabad, Kuwait city and Doha in order to make "European solidarity tangible". The calls for sanctions by Bardella comes as the rift between France and Muslim countries has widened. France in last one month has witnessed several terror attacks after Charlie Hebdo announced the republishing of controversial caricature of Prophet Muhammed and French President Emmanuel Macron refused to criticise it in early October. Protests erupted in Muslims countries over the incident. Social media users in many Muslim countries joined calls to boycott French goods. On October 16, a terrorist beheaded a secondary school teacher Samuel Paty who used controversial cartoons published by Charlie Hebdo in his classes. On the morning of October 30, another terrorist attac...

As the nation remains focused on determining who won the presidential election, world events are not standing still. All the challenges we faced around the globe the day before Americans went to the polls remain, and whoever sits in the Oval Office as president in January will have to deal with them. Front and center for either man will be the state of play in the Middle East and the course to steer after four years of the Trump administration. Democrats may not want to hear it, but the situation in the Middle East has changed much for the better since 2016. In particular, what once appeared to be an intractable Israeli-Arab confrontation is now well on its way to resolution. The United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan have normalized relations with Jerusalem. Saudi Arabia cannot be far behind. Peace is breaking out and a budding Israeli-Sunni Arab alliance seems to be growing. Yet, Qatar remains an outlier. Qatar empowers and provides financial support to the Muslim Brothe...

Britain’s counter-terrorism police are investigating claims that Qatar left a group of Syrian refugees in “fear of their lives” to thwart a court case in which its state-run bank was accused of being involved in funding terrorism in Syria. Eight refugees had lodged a case for damages at London’s High Court against the Qatari Doha Bank and two wealthy brothers, Moutaz and Ramez Al Khayyat. The brothers were described as two “prominent Syrian/Qatari businessmen over the funding of Al Nusra Front, an Al Qaeda affiliate. The Syrian refugees say they suffered “severe physical and psychiatric injuries” at the hands of the terrorist group . They claim the brothers used accounts at Doha Bank to channel extensive funds to the group during the Syrian civil war. A hearing was due to be held at the court on Monday on behalf of Doha Bank’s request for the trial to be moved to Qatar. But in a last-minute twist, the claimants contacted the UK’s SO15 counter-terrorism squad on Tuesday to r...

Women who were removed from a Qatar Airways flight and subject to an intimate medical examination, sparking international outrage last month, have not received any individual apologies or been directly contacted by the airline. Passengers on the flight, which departed Doha for Sydney on 2 October, have told Guardian Australia there has been no direct contact with them from either Qatar Airways of the Qatari government in the six weeks since the incident took place. This is despite some passengers making a formal complaint to Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and the Australian federal police (AFP) within 24 hours of arrival. They also have not been offered any compensation for the traumatic event. The women say they have all been contacted by the AFP to give interviews this month. The AFP contacted the passengers while they were in quarantine and has said it is committed to pursuing the investigation into their treatment. The group of passengers, who...

Five years have passed since the devastating terrorist attacks in France. In January 2015, deadly violent incidents took place in Paris inside both the Charlie Hebdo offices and at a kosher supermarket. In the same year, in November, Paris again faced attacks at the Stade de France and the Bataclan theatre. On Bastille Day, July 14, 2016, there was a further attack in the city of Nice, on the French Cote d’Azur. Yet again the French public have been shaken in recent weeks by a series of horrific terrorists’ knife attacks. On 26 September 2020, two people were stabbed and seriously hurt in Paris by a Pakistani immigrant who had entered the country fraudulently and illegally. The attack happened near the former offices of Charlie Hebdo, where the Islamist militants had carried out the attack of 2015. On 16 October, an Islamic fundamentalist beheaded a secondary school teacher Samuel Paty who used controversial cartoons published by Charlie Hebdo in his classes. On the morning...

Qatar is facing new legal action from 330 Syrian refugees who accuse the country of funding the Al Qaeda-affiliated terrorist group that tortured them. The claimants, many of whom now live in the UK, took their case to London’s High Court and are awaiting the outcome of a similar hearing involving eight refugees. They are seeking damages against the state-run Doha Bank and two wealthy Qatari businessmen, brothers Moutaz and Ramez Al Khayyat. The claimants say they suffered “severe physical and psychiatric injuries” at the hands of terrorist group Al Nusra Front, and claim the brothers used accounts at Doha Bank to channel funds to Al Nusra during the Syrian civil war. “There is a pending application before the court to add 330 additional claimants, who are resident in various parts of Europe, including a substantial number resident in the UK,” the court papers show. “The claimants and potential claimants are victims of terrorism perpetrated by Al Nusra Front in Syria and ha...

The Egyptian parliament’s Legislative Committee approved Nov. 1 a draft law submitted by the government, approving the dismissal of civil servants who support terrorist groups , mainly the Muslim Brotherhood, from all state agencies and institutions, without taking disciplinary measures. In the explanatory memo for the new amendments to Law No. 10 of 1972, the government said that as per Article 237 of the constitution, “the state is obliged to confront terrorism in all its forms, a threat to the homeland and citizens, and track its sources of financing according to a specific timetable while guaranteeing rights and freedoms. This law will regulate the provisions of anti-terrorism measures and fair compensation for any ensuing damages.” It continued, “The Egyptian state is waging a fierce war against terrorism, violence and extremism. Terrorism begins with an anomalous and poisonous mindset spread by the misguided followers of terrorism to deceive others. This creates a bre...

Picture credit - Amnesty International Migrants from Bangladesh, India and Nepal working on the refurbishment of the showcase Khalifa Stadium and landscaping the surrounding gardens and sporting facilities known as the “Aspire Zone” are being exploited. Some are being subjected to forced labour. They can’t change jobs, they can’t leave the country and they often wait months to get paid. Meanwhile, FIFA (football’s global governing body), its sponsors and the construction companies involved are set to make massive financial gains from the tournament.  We have found eight ways that some workers building the Khalifa Stadium and the Aspire Zone are being exploited. Below are some of the sardonic conditions; 1. Expensive recruitment fees Many migrants seek work in Qatar to escape poverty and unemployment in countries such as Nepal, Bangladesh and India. But to get a job they have to pay high fees.  The workers we spoke to paid amounts ranging from US$500 to US$4,300 to ...

Qatari state officials intimidated witnesses and claimants in a compensation claim brought by eight Syrian refugees against Doha Bank, the High Court in London was told on Wednesday. The bank stands accused of helping handle finances from two clients, Qatari brothers Moutaz and Ramez Al-Khayyat, for the Al-Nusra Front, a jihadist group active in the Syrian conflict until 2017, when it merged with several others to become Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS). The court was told that the brothers were acting on behalf of the Qatari state, possibly even the emir himself. Doha Bank and the Al-Khayyat brothers deny any wrongdoing in the case brought by the Netherlands-based Syrians, who were able to bring action in the UK due to the bank having offices in London. The UK government has designated Al-Nusra and HTS as terrorist organizations. Ben Emmerson QC, representing four of the refugees, accused Qatari officials of trying to “derail” the case. “The administration of public justice in t...

Saudi Arabia's Council of Senior Scholars declared that the Muslim Brotherhood was a terrorist group that did not represent Islam, the Saudi Press Agency reported. The Brotherhood is officially designated a terrorist group in Arab countries including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt. Yusuf Al Qaradawi, the spiritual leader of the Brotherhood, which was formed in Egypt in 1928, has been banned from Britain, France and the US for his extremist views, which include condoning suicide bombings. Al Qaradawi, who now lives in Qatar, has also been sentenced to life in prison in his native Egypt. The council, the kingdom's highest religious body, said the Brotherhood was "a deviant group" that undermined co-existence in a single nation and stirred rebellion, sedition, violence and terrorism. "The Muslim Brotherhood group is a terrorist group and it does not represent the method of Islam," the council said. "Rather, it follows its partisan obj...

By Adam Kredo The author of this Sunday's New York Times magazine cover story about the campaign to boycott, divest, and sanction the state of Israel works for an organization whose major donor, Qatar, is also the largest state funder of the terrorist group Hamas. Other significant donors to the author's organization, the International Crisis Group, are leading supporters of the anti-Semitic boycott movement the author describes in his piece. The publication of the article, " How the Battle Over Israel and Anti-Semitism Is Fracturing American Politics," represents another salvo in the New York Times ‘ continuing promotion of anti-Israel writers and views. The author, Nathan Thrall, is tied to a large network of BDS supporters that are funded into the millions by the Qatari government, which has long been engaged in efforts to spy on the American Jewish community and pro-Israel officials. Qatar's foreign influence operations in Washington, D.C., have fl...

By Jonathan Spyer Israeli energy minister Yuval Steinitz, speaking to the Ynet website on Sunday, expressed concern that despite Jerusalem’s objections, Qatar will eventually acquire state-of-the-art Lockheed Martin F-35 combat aircraft from the U.S. The minister’s words reflect Israel’s determination to maintain its qualitative military edge over all other Middle Eastern states. The Israeli desire to prevent any regional state from approaching military parity with it holds for friends as well as foes. A heated discussion is currently underway regarding the acquisition by the United Arab Emirates of the F-35 stealth aircraft as part of its normalization deal with Israel. Egypt’s efforts to modernize its submarine fleet remain a matter of debate and concern in Israel. Cairo and Jerusalem have been at peace for 40 years. These concerns derive from Israeli awareness of the volatile and dysfunctional nature of Mideast politics. Israeli defense officials point to the experience ...

If the latest wave of European attacks demonstrates the enduring threat of militant Islam, it also raises troubling questions about the resolve of Western democracies to defend themselves. At a time when almost every Western government is preoccupied with tackling the Covid pandemic, it is perhaps understandable that the threat posed by Islamist-inspired terrorism no longer dominates the agenda. Yet, to judge by the attacks in France and Austria, Islamist fanatics have lost none of their appetite for bringing carnage to European streets. Despite the disastrous setbacks groups such as Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil), have suffered in recent years at the hands of the US-led coalition, it is evident that Islamist extremists are taking advantage of the preoccupation with Covid to regroup to maintain their campaign against the West. And, even though groups like Isil no longer have the ability to seize and control large swathes of territory, as it did during the creat...