Category Archives: Qatar

Spiritual union: why Gulf migrants are turning to evangelical Christianity

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Pentecostalism is quietly thriving, with pastors saying churches are helping low-paid workers in crisis

Evangelical Christianity is quietly flourishing among migrant groups in the Gulf as churches provide low-paid workers facing horrific abuse with aid in times of crisis, according to pastors and parishioners across the region.

About 30 million migrant workers live in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states – Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – the muscle transforming oil-based economies into glittering 21st-century metropolises.

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Joe Biden arrives in Middle East at time of rapid change

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Analysis: Israel has transformed itself from regional pariah to ally to many Arab states

Joe Biden has made clear that the Middle East is not a priority for his administration: Ukraine, China and the US midterm elections are all more pressing issues. Still, when Air Force One touches down in Tel Aviv for his first visit to the region as president on Wednesday afternoon, Biden will be faced with a rapidly changing – and still unstable – part of the world.

Biden’s main goal is to convince Saudi Arabia of the need to increase global oil supplies to ease the energy crisis sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But the fact that he flies directly to Jeddah after two days in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories speaks to a significant shift: Israel’s transformation from regional pariah to ally for many Arab states.

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Met asked to investigate claims Qatari sheikh gave €3m to royal charities

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Call comes as Charity Commission considers investigation into allegations Prince Charles personally accepted cash donations

The Metropolitan police has been asked to consider allegations Prince Charles received €3m (£2.6m) in cash for his charities from a billionaire Qatari sheikh as part of the force’s so-called “cash-for-honours” investigation.

The call comes as the Charity Commission reviews whether it should mount its own investigation into claims Charles personally accepted three donations, reportedly stuffed in a suitcase, a holdall and a Fortnum & Mason carrier bag, between 2011 and 2015.

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Prince Charles’s charities are no stranger to controversy

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Analysis: Reports that prince accepted €3m from a former Qatari prime minister again throws spotlight on donations

• Charles given €3m by Qatari politician, according to report

Claims by the Sunday Times of alleged cash donations given to the Prince of Wales’s Charitable Fund by a former Qatari prime minister are the latest to throw a spotlight on fundraising for the heir to the throne’s charities.

The billionaire Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber al-Thani, who was Qatar’s prime minister and foreign minister between 2007 and 2013, is a contentious figure.

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Prince Charles given €3m in cash in bags by Qatari politician, according to report

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Money was passed immediately to one of the prince’s charities, says Clarence House

The Prince of Wales accepted bags containing millions of euros in cash during meetings with a senior Qatari politician, according to a report.

Prince Charles was said to have been given a total of €3m (£2.6m) during meetings with Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber al-Thani, the former prime minister of Qatar.

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FBI seizes retired US general’s electronic data over alleged illegal Qatar lobbying

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Gen John Allen gave a ‘false version of events’ about his work for Gulf state in 2020 interview, court documents allege

The FBI has seized electronic data from John Allen, a retired four-star marine general and former leader of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan who authorities say made false statements and withheld “incriminating” documents about his role in an illegal foreign lobbying campaign on behalf of Qatar.

Allen is now president of the Brookings Institution, a prominent Washington thinktank, which said on Wednesday it had placed him on administrative leave.

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Prophet Muhammad remarks embroil India in row with Gulf states

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‘Insulting’ comments by spokespeople for ruling Bharatiya Janata party met with anger in Middle East

The Indian government has become embroiled in a diplomatic row with Gulf states after two ruling party spokespeople were accused of making Islamophobic and derogatory comments insulting the prophet Muhammad.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) suspended its national spokesperson, Nupur Sharma, and expelled its Delhi media head, Naveen Kumar Jindal, after their comments went viral in the Middle East, where they were met with a chorus of diplomatic anger.

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UN donor conference falls billions short of $4.4bn target to help Afghanistan

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Conference raises only $2.44bn as Russian foreign minister says west is responsible for country’s humanitarian crisis

The world’s donor drought, and growing global divisions over Afghanistan’s political direction, have been laid bare when a UN appeal for $4.4bn (£3.35bn) to help Afghanistan fell massively short, the second UN donor conference in a month to do so.

Donor countries pledged only $2.44bn towards the appeal, a senior UN official said on Thursday after a high-level pledging conference.

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Revealed: migrant workers in Qatar forced to pay billions in recruitment fees

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Guardian investigation finds labourers – including those on World Cup-related projects – were left with huge debts

Low-wage migrant workers have been forced to pay billions of dollars in recruitment fees to secure their jobs in World Cup host nation Qatar over the past decade, a Guardian investigation has found.

Bangladeshi men migrating to Qatar are likely to have paid about $1.5bn (£1.14bn) in fees, and possibly as high as $2bn, between 2011 and 2020. Nepali men are estimated to have paid around $320m, and possibly more than $400m, in the four years between mid-2015 to mid-2019.

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Germany agrees gas deal with Qatar to help end dependency on Russia

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Long-term contract will not immediately stop flow of money to Russia, for which German ministers have been criticised

Germany has agreed a contract with Qatar for the supply of liquefied natural gas (LNG) that will help the European country wean itself off its dependency on Russian energy.

But the contract is a long-term solution and will do little to slow the current flow of European money into Russian coffers, estimated to be worth $285m (£217m) a day for oil alone.

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Up to 10,000 Asian migrant workers die in the Gulf every year, claims report

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Campaigners say not enough is being done to prevent loss of life and the causes of death are not being properly investigated

As many as 10,000 migrant workers from south and south-east Asia die every year in the Gulf countries, according to a report by a group of human rights organisations.

More than half of the deaths are unexplained, said the report, and are commonly recorded as due to “natural causes” or “cardiac arrest”. But Gulf states are failing properly to investigate why so many migrant workers are dying.

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UK man, 75, trapped in Qatar for more than seven years after legal dispute

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Ranald Crook, now back in Britain, was forbidden to fly home for his father’s funeral under travel ban

A 75-year-old British man was trapped in Qatar for more than seven years when he was refused permission to leave after a business dispute.

Ranald Crook, who is back in Gloucestershire, was even forbidden to fly home for his father’s funeral as a result of the travel ban, imposed after two influential Qatari brothers took legal action against him.

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Qatar in talks to supply gas to Europe if Russia cuts supplies

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Emir expected to tell US president Qatar can provide short-term emergency liquid gas to help replace any loss of supplies

The emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, is expected to tell the US president, Joe Biden, that his country will provide some short-term emergency liquid gas to help replace any shortages if Russia cuts off supplies to Germany.

Qatar is looking to supply Europe through transferring excess gas in storage in east Asia. It is also hoping to return to the European market on a bigger scale as its own production levels rise, but wants to see an end to a European Commission anti-trust investigation.

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Former Qatar 2022 employee facing fresh legal action over loan payments

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  • Abdullah Ibhais cannot pay loan because of withheld money
  • Ibhais did not go along with official line over workers’ strike

A former employee of Qatar’s 2022 World Cup organising committee, jailed on contested corruption charges, faces fresh legal action after his former bosses withheld his severance pay meaning he will default on a loan, his family say.

Abdullah Ibhais, a former media manager, was last year given a three-year sentence for misappropriating state funds – a charge that he insists was concocted as punishment for him criticising the handling of a migrant workers’ strike.

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‘If I’m not on social media, I’m dead’: Qatari feminist activist feared killed or detained

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Rights groups warn 23-year-old Noof al-Maadeed is at imminent risk, despite reassurances from Qatar authorities

Human rights groups are demanding Qatari authorities show proof of life for a feminist activist, amid growing fears that she has been killed or detained.

Noof al-Maadeed has been missing since mid-October after returning to Qatar from the UK. The young activist fled the Gulf kingdom two years ago, documenting her escape on social media, after alleged attempts on her life. She had recently returned to Qatar after being given reassurance by the authorities that she was safe.

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Lives lost at Europe’s borders and Afghan MPs in exile: human rights this fortnight – in pictures

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A roundup of the struggle for human rights and freedoms, from Mexico to Manila

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Nothing can stop Iran’s World Cup heroes. Except war, of course…

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The ‘Persian Leopards’ are going great guns on the football field, but at nuclear talks in Vienna a far more dangerous game is being played

There is a strikingly topsy-turvy, Saturnalian feel to recent qualifying matches for the 2022 football World Cup. Saudi Arabia (population 35 million) beat China (population 1.4 billion). Canada lead the US in their group. Four-time winners Italy failed to defeat lowly Northern Ireland.

Pursuing an unbeaten run full of political symbolism, unfancied Iran are also over the moon after subjugating the neighbourhood, as is their habit. Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and the UAE all succumbed to the soar‑away “Persian Leopards”.

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Improving migrant workers’ lives in Qatar | Letter

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Faha Al-Mana responds to a report on allegations of exploitation and abuse by migrant workers in the run-up to the 2022 World Cup

Your report (‘We have fallen into a trap’: Qatar’s World Cup dream is a nightmare for hotel staff, 18 November) fails to acknowledge the progress Qatar has made to improve living and working standards for foreign workers, including those in the hospitality sector.

The impact of Qatar’s reforms is best highlighted through its numbers: over 240,000 workers have successfully changed jobs since barriers were removed in September 2020; more than 400,000 have directly benefited from the new minimum wage; improvements to the wage protection system now protect 96% of eligible workers from wage abuse; and hundreds of thousands of workers have left Qatar and returned without permission from their employer since exit permits were abolished.

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The road to reform: have things improved for Qatar’s World Cup migrant workers?

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A year before kick off, workers claim companies are refusing to enforce sweeping new labour laws created to stamp out human rights abuses

When Qatar won the bid to host the World Cup in 2010, the triumphant Gulf state unveiled plans to host the most spectacular of all World Cup tournaments and began an ambitious building plan of state-of-the-art stadiums, luxury hotels and a sparkling new metro.

Yet, over the next decade, the brutal conditions in which hundreds of thousands of migrant workers toiled in searing heat to build Qatar’s World Cup vision has been exposed, with investigations into the forced labour , debt bondage and worker death toll causing international outrage.

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Migrant caravan and Qatar’s tarnished World Cup: human rights this fortnight – in pictures

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A roundup of the struggle for human rights and freedoms, from Pakistan to Poland

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