User:Elliek22/Human Rights in Qatar

Language barriers

In terms of basic human rights, people of Qatar face obstacles in communication and connection from language barriers. Not everyone in Qatar speaks Arabic and there is a heavy population of migrant workers that speak other languages; basic human rights are affected because of this lack of communication. For instance, access to health care is impacted. A patient that does not speak English or Arabic will have a great deal of trouble trying to receive treatment. Qatar is predominantly made up of foreigners who do not speak the national languages, and they will have trouble in receiving treatment since they cannot voice their issues (Abdelrahim). Also because of the language barrier patients might receive incorrect treatment or the wrong treatment for their ailment, which can make their situation even worse. Besides health care, the other interactions with important institutions that are counterproductive due to a lack of communication. Additionally, according to the journal, “Patient Perspectives on Languages Discordance During Healthcare Visits: Findings From the Extremely High-Density Multicultural State of Qatar”, addressing the work force of Qatar, “Qatar, … heavily in the development of its healthcare infrastructure in recent years to keep pace with rapid economic expansion. The expatriate population living and working in the country constitutes 94.14% of the total workforce (Qatar Permanent Population Committee, 2011)” (Abdelrahim). The majority of workers who control the forward progression of advancements of Qatar do not even speak the national language. Migrant labor workers are the backbone of the country and those who are in charge of them probably cannot even communicate with them. The language barriers also create cultural and ethnic divides. About 90% of Qatar’s population is made of non-citizens (Theodoropoulou). Qatar has the highest population of migrants in the world and 94% of its economically active population are not Qatari natives (Sage). Communication is essential to complete anything, and language barriers hinder progress...

Makeup and Citizenship of Qatar

Given the break down of Qatar’s population it is clear that people’s rights are in jeopardy. Out of the population of about 2,700,000, about 2 million are men and the rest are female (PSA). This population obviously with favor the rights of males and not focus as much on women’s rights. Stated earlier, over 90% over the population of Qatar are not actually Qatari. The Qatari government does not help the migrant acclimate and studies have been done on the quality of life of migrant workers. Workers come from India, Nepal, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Egypt, and more. Out of this migrant population over half of them have strong depression like symptoms (Sage). With all of these different cultural backgrounds coming together migrant workers most likely feel lost and have troubling find a place in their life. To make matters even worse the divide even stronger between Qataris and migrants, the new laws passed in 2021 states only those who have be Qatari nationality since birth and naturalized citizens with a Qatari grandparent can vote. Additionally on those whose nationality is originally Qatari can run in elections (Dihmis). So, all of the migrant workers that make up the majority of Qatar are not even considered citizens of the country they work so hard for.

Mental Health

A problem in Qatar is the stigma behind mental health issues and how they are delt with. Since their joining the World Heath Organization’s Mental Health Action Plan which was set to last between 2013-2020 (Sharkey). This plan, “recognizes the essential role of mental health in achieving health for all people” (WHO). In Qatar, mental health typically has a stigma around it, and this was the first time the Qatar government played an active role in mental health awareness. Studies have been done on the three groups that make up Qatar which are the labor migrants, white collar migrants, and non-migrants. The odds of depression are significantly increased in the labor migrant and white-collar migrant groups compared to the non-migrant group. One of the explaining factors behind this increase is the quality of life which explains the discrepancy. The thought process is migrants have ton face major life changes and have to adapt to living in Qatar, and the ‘culture shock’ migrants experience is a major contributor to declining mental health (Sage). Qatar is not as current as it could be with mental health services. In 2014, about 0.36% out of the healthcare budget was spent on mental heath services, which is seven times lower than the median for upper-middle-income structure. Major depressive disorder (20.4%) and generalized anxiety disorder (19.1%) are the most frequent cases seen. In undergraduate schooling for medical professions such as doctors and nurses only 3% of training is dedicated to psychiatry, mental health, and other things related. There are a projected 13.5 mental health professionals per 100,000 population (Sharkey).

Impact from World Cup

Qatar becoming the destination for the 2022 World Cup escalated the issue of human rights for migrant workers. Between 500,000 and 1.5 million migrant workers were employed to build the stadium. About 1,200 migrants died during the project between 2010 and 2013. The Qatar government did not take ownership of these deaths. Migrant workers involved in the world cup were forced into labor, some human trafficked, and kept against their will (Ganji). Conditions of labor and amount of wages was exaggerated to attract laborers; this requirement practice was not regulated by any organization. Contractors advertise the work and rates and Qatar uses the Kafala system. This system gives the network (in this case the contractor) the power to decide the treatment of the migrant workers and how they operate. The government does not get involved in the treatment (Millward). Workers were given  dirty living conditions with 12 to one room and were often left with no food or pay (Pattisson). FIFA has changed executive members and added more people to their committee because of what has happened in Qatar (Gibson).