Vani Saraswathi

In the Gulf, an inaccurate but telling distinction is often made between expatriates and migrants. Asian employees in lower-income jobs are referred to as migrant workers, while those in higher income jobs are referred to as expatriates. Regardless of lexicon, they are all governed by the same set of repressive sponsorship (Kafala) laws. For the purpose of this story, we use ‘expats’ and ‘migrant workers’ interchangeably.

If you are a lower-income migrant worker in Qatar and find yourself in an unfavourable employment situation, the feeble system in place to ‘protect’ your rights will more often than not fail you.

The UN High Commissioner took a seemingly softer approach to the country’s migrant rights violations – contrasting with a previously more critical stance of the UN.

Here’s why the changes have little impact on workers’ rights

A popular Malayalam television program now seeks to use its reach in GCC and India to help migrant workers and their families.