THE WORLD’S largest trade union federation urged Qatar today to compensate migrant workers who were arrested and some deported from the country last week after protesting against their employer’s failure to pay them.

Footage shared online last Thursday showed a group of about 60 men blocking part of a busy highway in the country’s capital Doha while demonstrating outside the offices of Al Bandary International Group, a construction, real estate and hotel conglomerate.

According to Migrant-Rights.org, an Arabian Gulf-based human rights organisation, workers have not been paid by Al Bandary’s companies for close to six months.

Following their arrest, the workers were taken to a detention centre and held in cells without air-conditioning as temperatures rose to 41°C in Doha at the weekend.

The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) told the Star today that despite Qatar having reformed some of its labour laws, unpaid wages remains an issue.

“The government has frozen assets of persistent offenders, but the corporate culture of denying basic rights is still rife,” ITUC general secretary Sharan Burrow said.

“For workers to be arrested with the threat of deportation is unacceptable, and we expect the authorities to intervene to ensure all the workers are fully compensated and to stop any deportations.”

The Qatari government told the AP news agency on Sunday night that “a number of protesters were detained for breaching public safety laws,” but did not comment any more on the arrests or any deportations.

Qatar’s mistreatment of migrant workers has come under intense scrutiny in recent years since the absolute monarchy was awarded the Fifa 2022 World Cup.

Despite a long record of human rights abuses before it was gifted the World Cup, the sport’s governing body did not impose conditions that required Qatar to improve workers’ rights.

Earlier this month, Human Rights Watch (HRW) warned that while the Qatari authorities have created programmes to compensate migrant workers for past abuses, many are falling through the net.

“With the tournament nearly a hundred days away, it is critical for Fifa and Qatari authorities to publicly commit to providing compensation for workers and their families who suffered serious harm while making the World Cup possible,” HRW deputy Middle East director Michael Page said on August 12.

Should they fail to do so, Page said, then “World Cup 2022 will be remembered for its legacy of unaddressed labour and human rights abuses.”

Following the protest last week, human and labour rights non-profit organisation Equidem said “Qatar appears far more willing to enforce laws to suppress strikes and deport workers who complain about treatment […] than punish companies that do not pay their workers.”

A report released by the group last week found that migrant workers from Africa and Asia employed at Fifa World Cup Qatar 2022 hotels have been subjected to serious labour exploitation and human rights violations.

Equidem found some workers had been subjected to sexual harassment, nationality- and gender-based discrimination, wage theft, health and safety risks, sudden loss of employment, and illegal recruitment charges they faced in their work.

One of the hotels listed in the report is the Souq Al-Wakra Hotel, where the England team is to be based during the competition.