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Report

FIFA should earmark at least $440M to provide remedy for the hundreds of thousands of migrant workers who have suffered human rights abuses in Qatar during preparations for the 2022 World Cup, Amnesty International said in a new report today, six months ahead of the tournament's opening game.  

May 18, 2022

Press Release

Serious security vulnerabilities in Qatar’s mandatory contact tracing app, uncovered by Amnesty International, must act as a wake-up call for governments rolling-out COVID-19 apps to ensure privacy safeguards are central to the technology. An investigation by Amnesty’s Security Lab discovered the critical weakness in the configuration of Qatar’s EHTERAZ contact tracing app. Now fixed, the vulnerability would have allowed cyber attackers to access highly sensitive personal information, including the name, national ID, health status and location data of more than one million users. Amnesty alerted the Qatari authorities to the vulnerability shortly after making the discovery on Thursday, May 21.…

May 26, 2020

Press Release

Qatari authorities rounded up and expelled dozens of migrant workers after telling them they were being taken to be tested for COVID-19, Amnesty International has learned. The organization interviewed 20 men from Nepal who were apprehended by Qatari police, alongside hundreds of others, in March. The police told most of the men that they were going to be tested for COVID-19 and would be returned to their accommodation afterwards. Instead, they were taken to detention centers and held in appalling conditions for several days, before being sent to Nepal. “None of the men we spoke to had received any explanation for why they…

April 15, 2020

Press Release

As part of a series of workshops exploring human rights concerns related to the COVID-19 response, Amnesty International USA will be holding a workshop titled “The impact of COVID-19 on the Middle East and North Africa”. The workshop will cover how COVID-19 has disrupted the lives of millions of people living throughout the Middle East and North Africa and discuss ways the impact can be mitigated, ways that the public is coming together during the pandemic, as well as recommendations of how governments can respond. These are extraordinary times, but it’s critical to stress that respect for human rights is…

April 7, 2020

Press Release

Responding to reports that parts of Qatar’s Industrial Area in Doha - home to a large number of migrant workers’ accommodation - has been put into lockdown after hundreds of construction workers became infected with COVID-19, Steve Cockburn, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director of Global Issues, said:

March 20, 2020

Press Release

The plight of migrant workers who continue to be abused and exploited while working in Qatar will cast a shadow over the World Athletics Championships, Amnesty International said ahead of the showpiece sporting event which starts this week.

September 25, 2019

Report

The international community’s chilling complacency towards wide-scale human rights violations in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has emboldened governments to commit appalling violations during 2018 by giving them the sense that they need never fear facing justice, said Amnesty International as it published a review of human rights in the region last year. The report Human rights in the Middle East and North Africa: A review of 2018 describes how authorities across the region have unashamedly persisted with ruthless campaigns of repression in order to crush dissent, cracking down on protesters, civil society and political opponents, often with tacit support…

February 26, 2019

Report

With less than four years to go until the 2022 World Cup, the Qatari authorities risk falling behind on their promise to tackle widespread labour exploitation of thousands of migrant workers, Amnesty International said today. 

February 4, 2019

Report

A new investigation by Amnesty International has exposed how an engineering company involved in building 2022 FIFA World Cup infrastructure took advantage of Qatar’s notorious sponsorship system to exploit scores of migrant workers. The company, Mercury MENA, failed to pay its workers thousands of dollars in wages and work benefits, leaving them stranded and penniless in Qatar.

September 25, 2018

Press Release

The lives of thousands of Gulf residents remain in turmoil as a consequence of the ongoing political dispute in the region, said Amnesty International, more than six months after the crisis began. 

December 14, 2017

Press Release

FIFA should act immediately on a series of critical recommendations made today in the first report published by its Human Rights Advisory Board, said Amnesty International.

November 9, 2017

Report

Changes to labor laws in Qatar barely scratch the surface and will continue to leave migrant workers, including those building stadiums and infrastructure for the World Cup, at the mercy of exploitative bosses and at risk of forced labor, said Amnesty International in a new briefing.

December 9, 2016