Amnesty International has poured cold water on Qatar’s claims to be protecting workers on FIFA World Cup projects, exposing a litany of abuses faced by people refitting the Khalifa International Stadium in Doha. As Amnesty put it: “For players and fans, a World Cup stadium is a place of dreams. For some of the workers who…
The government of China has engaged in a nasty and bizarre campaign of repression against labour activists, just as its own reforms threatened to do some good. A few days ago, Zeng Feiyang, Director of the Guangdong Panyu Migrant Worker Centre, along with a colleague and two other activists, were – according to a Guardian…
In a victory for freedom of expression, the Home Office has been forced to climb down over its refusal to issue a visa to a leading Cuban campaigner, in a legal move that may also benefit trade union activists from around the world. It was one of the more perverse episodes in the the…
Guatemala has dodged the bullet of a ‘gangster President’, but will those remaining in the contest be willing and able to heal a country tearing itself apart? Guatemala has been gripped by protests for months. Angry crowds, desperate for change, filled Guatemala City’s public spaces demanding the resignation of the outgoing President Otto Molina after…
The fans got stuck in to our panel at the football Supporters’ Summit today, where the Football Supporters’ Federation had invited the TUC’s Playfair Qatar to talk about FIFA reform and – of course – the Qatar World Cup. There was so much interest there wasn’t time to answer all the questions from the floor.…
The United Arab Emirates has made the ITUC’s list of the ten worst countries for workers’ rights abuses, and it’s not hard to see why when you look at the plight of the country’s army of migrant workers. Non-national workers make up more than 88 per cent of the population in UAE. Migrants are excluded…
As a Gulf State with its infamous kafala system, Qatar can be a living hell for migrant labourers, excluded from labour law and under a forced labour system akin to a modern slavery. Once in Qatar, migrant workers can have their passports seized, their contracts torn up and be forced to work for wages less…