When a law firm hired by Qatar, the site of the 2022 World Cup, issued a report last year urging reforms in the treatment of migrant construction workers there, human rights groups expected the tiny, oil-rich Persian Gulf nation to respond quickly.
But more than 15 months later, critics say, many of the report's major recommendations remain unaddressed, and thousands of foreign laborers continue to work in Qatar under conditions akin to indentured servitude. The report, by the law firm DLA Piper, had called for, among other things, eliminating the collection of exorbitant fees paid by workers to secure jobs and rules preventing them from changing jobs or leaving the country.