(MENAFN- The Peninsula) By Fazeena Saleem | The Peninsula
Qatar has paid great attention to expatriate workers and considered them as partners in the development witnessed by the country, said Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, H E Dr. Ahmed bin Hassan Al Hammadi while addressing an event to mark the International Migrants Day, yesterday.
The event 'International Migrant Day: Success Stories from Qatar,' organized by the Mission of International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Qatar, was also graced by Minister of Labor, H E Dr. Ali bin Saeed Smaikh Al Marri; Director General of Passports at the Ministry of Interior, Major General Mohammed Ahmed Al Ateeq; Director of the Health Emergencies Department at Hamad Medical Corporation, Dr. Muhammad Al Hajri among several diplomats and dignitaries.
The event highlighted the initiatives introduced by Qatar trough various ministries to protect the rights of migrant workers.
“Qatar is witnessing an important stage in its history, which is represented in moving forward in a comprehensive and accelerated development that it has not witnessed before, and expatriate workers play a role in this development,” said Dr. Al Hammadi.
“Therefore, protecting and promoting their rights has always been a strategic choice and a moral duty before it was a political obligation,” he added.
Dr. Al Hammadi said that Qatar has witnessed many important legislative reforms to enhance workers' rights and create a safe environment for work, as the sponsorship system was abolished and replaced with the contracting system, and specific measures were adopted.
“The State of Qatar participated in all efforts to protect workers, and Doha hosted United Nations offices in this regard due to the importance of strengthening partnership with them and contributing to their improvement,” he said.
International Migrants Day is observed on December 18 and this year the day is marked under the theme 'Harnessing the Potential of Human Mobility.' The theme aims at highlighting the contributions made by migrants to build stronger communities, through their knowledge, networks and skills. This year also marks the 70th anniversary of establishing IOM and first anniversary of establishing its office in Doha.
“In the first year of the presence of the United Nations Migration Mission in the State of Qatar, we are honored that we have implemented a large number of programs with government partners in order to continue to improve the human rights situation in general and migrants in particular, and to support the efforts of the State in this context. We would not have been able to do all of this without the distinguished support we received from the Government of Qatar,” said Iman Erieqat, Chief of IOM Mission in Qatar.
The COVID 19 pandemic showed that immigrants are among the groups most negatively affected by the effects of the economic, social and health pandemic, despite their active contribution to the front lines of combating the epidemic.
“Here, we cannot fail to commend the efforts of the State of Qatar, which was keen to provide health care and vaccinations for all migrants, regardless of their legal status, and which adopted a policy of correcting conditions to enable migrants to correct their legal status,' said Erieqat.
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