Pakistan has announced that it will train some 200,000 Pakistanis to work in Qatar under the emirate's kafala system to build infrastructure for the 2022 World Cup.
Although Pakistan's Provincial Labor Minister Raja Ashfaq Sarwar did not specifically comment on Qatar's problematic sponsorship system, he said that nearly tripling the number of Pakistanis in Qatar could ease unemployment in Pakistan.
"Government in collaboration with private sector will train these skilled and semi-skilled workers who will bring foreign exchange of more than 60 billion rupees annually to Pakistan that will also raise the standard of living of their families," the minister said, according to Doha News.
Qatar has faced ongoing criticism over its kafala system and its treatment of foreign workers, especially in the wake of its controversial bid to host the World Cup. Under the current kafala system, expat workers are not easily able to change jobs, often have their passports confiscated by employers and can not travel freely. Additionally, many blue collar workers – like the ones Pakistan plans to send – are forced to live in subpar living conditions while working long days in extreme temperatures.
Rights groups have regularly referred to the kafala system and the working conditions of blue collar workers in Qatar and other Gulf countries as modern-day slavery.
For more than a year the Qatari government has promised reforms to the system but earlier this month when proposed changes were accepted by the emirate's Shura Council, they were criticized for making things worse, not better, for foreign workers.
The minister's recent statements seem to suggest that none of these concerns bother Pakistan too terribly much. Although he did also say that during training the workers will be taught to avoid human traffickers and exploitative contracts.
Maybe they should be taught to avoid Qatar all together?