For migrant workers, ‘leaving the country is not an option’
Qatar’s reputation precedes it. Hundreds of thousands of migrant workers live in the emirate, sometimes in squalid conditions, and sometimes victims of abuse. So why do they keep pouring over the peninsula? And why do they stay?
By Pauline Hoffman
to mentonio should move every three months. for his safety. “Ten to twenty people come here to ask me for help. All the days. Some are undocumented. It can cause me problems. In this shared flat with four other people, his roommates do not always support the coming and going of the poor workers, who give up work after Setbacks with the employer. In a room full to the brim (a bedroom, dining room and living room at the same time), a cat wanders in the corners. Nothing, from the design of the room to Antonio’s eyes, conveys the instability of his situation. For now, this construction worker is pushing $800 a month with his wife to live in a tepid apartment in the Najma neighborhood south of Doha.
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