Improving labour standards for migrant domestic workers in Qatar: A return to labour rights

Abstract

The human impact of development in the Middle East is acutely borne by the migrant workforce that sustains it. This paper takes Qatar as a case study to analyse the usefulness of labour rights and human rights in protecting migrant workers. In Qatar, migrant workers are excluded from national law and relying on human rights is, for them, futile, with many protections reserved for citizens. Recourse must be had to something else to protect them. This paper argues that the International Labour Organization (ILO) and a bottom-up approach underlying labour rights can better protect migrant workers in such settings. To do this, it looks at the ILO’s activities and successes in protecting migrant workers to date, and the futility of international human rights in a country that consistently objects to and rejects them. The paper ends by analysing the ILO’s more recent moves towards human rights, and argues against them, instead pushing for a return to pure labour rights that emphasises worker agency over state control.