A/HRC/44/57/Add.1 23. A significant challenge is that the transnational economic and legal regime that structures the country’s labour recruitment reinforces and consolidates some racial and ethnic stereotypes. Visas issued in blocks function as an informal quota system according to which different nationalities are given permission to enter the country. Most non-nationals are recruited for specific jobs, and private companies will commonly meet the need for specific types of workers by bringing in co-nationals, the result of which is a firm societal association between certain types of work and specific nationalities. 24. For example, the Special Rapporteur learned that Bangladeshis, Sri Lankans and Nepalis are among the most commonly employed in low-income jobs such as construction. This is not to say that all Bangladeshis and Nepalis in Qatar are invariably construction workers, but that the vast majority are brought into the country to work in this sector. Consultations with South Asian migrant workers typically recruited for low-income jobs reported that their nationality often functions as a barrier to their advancement to higherpaying jobs, even when they possess the necessary skills, in part because of stereotypes and implicit judgments by employers and others that fix Bangladeshis, Nepalis and Sri Lankans to low-income roles. For Western and Arab nationalities, their passports confer upon them privilege that results in better contractual benefits, even when they are performing the same tasks as certain South Asian and sub-Saharan African nationalities. The Special Rapporteur’s concern is that in effect, even if not as a matter of intent, nationality and national origin entrench de facto castes among non-nationals according to which European, North American, Australian and Arab nationalities systematically enjoy greater human rights protections than South Asian and sub-Saharan African nationalities. III. Migrant workers’ labour conditions 25. Based on figures provided by the Ministry of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs, there are approximately 1.9 million migrant workers in Qatar. As at 2 December 2019, among migrant workers, about 1.7 million were men and about 140,000 were women. The majority were from India (737,050), followed by Bangladesh (430,739), Nepal (352,911), the Philippines (240,721), Egypt (212,223), Pakistan (156,285), the Sudan (68,547), Jordan (56,114) and the Syrian Arab Republic (54,630). Sub-Saharan Africans are also increasingly represented, and include approximately 40,000 Kenyans. Although the exact numbers are unavailable, according to reports, there are also migrant workers from Burundi, Ethiopia, Ghana and Nigeria, among other countries. A. Labour exploitation and access to justice 26. Immense power imbalances persist between employers and migrant workers, imbalances rooted in the kafala (sponsorship) system that has historically structured labour relations and conditions of residency for low-income workers in Qatar.21 The result is that, both because of the content of the law and the power it confers upon employers over employees, many low-income workers are too afraid to seek justice for labour violations, and reasonably so. Migrant workers, especially low-wage earners in the construction, service and domestic work sectors, frequently experience non-payment or delayed payment of salaries. One worker in the service industry reported receiving only one month’s salary after four months of not being paid. Another, a domestic worker, reported working for 10 months without pay. A construction worker testified with resignation that he had been waiting for over a year to receive 60,000 Qatari riyals in back wages, even after receiving a labour judgment in his favour. Some expressed a desire to report their employers to labour authorities but feared their employers would retaliate by terminating their contracts or falsely accusing them of leaving work, which is popularly referred to as “absconding” and is an offence punishable by imprisonment under Law No. 21 of 2015. 22 The very use of this terminology of “absconding”, even if it is not present in the law, points to the indentured or coercive labour conditions that are the reality for too many low-income workers in Qatar. It also recalls the historical reliance on enslaved and coerced labour in the region. 21 22 CERD/C/QAT/CO/17-21, para. 15 (a). Available at www.ilo.org/dyn/natlex/natlex4.detail?p_lang=en&p_isn=102231. 7