Qatar has recently been in the news for all the right reasons including the lifting of exit permit system for a majority of expatriate workers in the country.

The move, which has been widely hailed, shows that Qatar is keen to overhaul its labour system so that all workers are protected by the best possible employment laws and regulations.

“Qatar isn’t ambivalent to the plight of its migrant workers,” said Qatar’s media attache for the UK HE Sheikh Thamer bin Hamad Al Thani, according to Gulf Times.

The top official was talking to UK-based The Guardian Newspaper.

He referred to an article written by Pete Pattisson on October 29 in the English daily and said it had failed to acknowledge Qatar’s progress in reforming its labour system. He said the article wrongly tried to portray Qatar as ambivalent to its migrant workforce’s plight.

“Such claims are simply untrue,” said Sheikh Thamer, saying the claims in the article are currently under investigation by Qatar’s Ministry of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs.

Sheikh Thamer underlined his point by presenting some numbers that reflected the work Qatar has undertaken in the recent past.

The labour attache said Qatar had carried out over 19,000 labour inspections and banned almost 12,000 companies for not addressing the country’s laws in the first half of 2018.

He said almost 230,000 electronic contracts had also been signed in order to prevent contract substitution, reported The Peninsula.

He said Qatar was also cooperating with the International Labor Organisation and the countries of workers’ origin in order to eliminate employment fees at the source.

He said these efforts would become more prominent once Qatar opens 20 new visa-processing centres in eight nations, the first of which was opened in Sri Lanka recently.

Sheikh Thamer acknowledged that Qatar needed to remain vigilant in order to faithfully enforce the new laws.

“Workers are encouraged to report instances where violations of the law occur. They have access to multiple mechanisms to do so. This is why we viewed claims made in the Guardian article with such concern.  MADLSA has announced an investigation into the claims,” he was quoted as saying by Qatar Tribune.