QATARSUCKS and the world needs to know!

Migrant workers flock to the Gulf lured by a better life. But, in a three-month investigation, Al-Jazeera found that many laborers are missing out on the wealth generated by the region's construction boom.

The Gulf countries are enjoying an economic boom. Construction projects, buoyed by oil-rich investors, were worth $200bn in 2006 alone.

The pace of development has meant that luxury lifestyles are becoming the norm rather than an aspiration for local populations and resident Western expatriate communities.

Close on the heels of the Indian embassy suspending attestation of visas for housemaids, two maids yesterday sought the mission’s intervention for their repatriation.

The two, who came separately in a gap of one hour, said they had left their respective employers’ homes after they were brutally assaulted by members of the houses. One even bore swollen marks on her forearm and leg, which, she alleged, had occurred after sponsor’s family members hit her with hot iron.

The Public Works Authority has urged the public to desist from harassing workers involved in its various project works.

Ashghal said yesterday that their workers were often being subjected to verbal abuse by the public, both expatriates and nationals, in the name of road closures and diversions.

"People must understand the temporary inconveniences that they are facing is the pangs prior to the birth of a new-look Doha," Ashghal said in a release.

A British Airways flight was delayed for several hours after women members of the Qatari royal family objected to sitting next to men they did not know. The three wives of Sheikh Badr Bin Khalifa al-Thani refused take up their seats on board Flight 563 from Milan's Linate airport to London Heathrow.

Police and Qatari diplomats became involved before the captain told Sheikh Badr's entourage to leave the aircraft. The Qatari royals eventually ended up getting an Alitalia flight to London. They had been on a shopping day-trip to the Italian city.

India will ban women under 30 from emigrating to work as domestic help in the Gulf and parts of Africa and Southeast Asia in a bid to curb sex trafficking, a report said Tuesday.

The move came after Renuka Chowdhury, the minister for women and children, said that overseas domestic workers had complained of being pushed into prostitution after their employers had seized their passports.

Low salaries and lack of privileges apart, taking up a job in the private sector can lower the social standing of a Qatari.

Qataris value social prestige more than anything else, so fighting this kind of perception attached to private jobs is one of the most formidable challenges the planners in the country face in their drive to push nationals into private employment.

As soon as Murad Bux arrived, his 13-year-old son and 17-year-old daughter were introduced to him. He hugged them and wept. He was a servant of an Arab Shaikh in Qatar and his master had allowed him to visit his family after 12 years for a duration of two months. When he was asked how his life had gone in Qatar. His reply was: “For me, each day has been as long as a year. As if the time was hanged and the globe had stopped revolving around the sun”.

An Indian housemaid in Qatar has sought protection from the Indian embassy, alleging harassment at the hands of her sponsor. It's the fifth case where an Indian maid has lodged a complaint against her sponsor with the embassy in less than a week.

Indian Ambassador to Qatar George Joseph said the woman was already sent to the deportation center and her husband would join her on Thursday. The Indian embassy has also formally informed the foreign ministry about the incident, Joseph said.

The Gulf states -- Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman – may no longer accept Filipino workers unless the Philippine government take steps to clarify its policy imposing $13 daily penalty on foreign employers who would not pay their workers on time and at a minimum of $400 a month.

The Committee for Importing Foreign Workers of the Gulf Cooperation Council(GCC) unanimously agreed in a meeting on Thursday to stop importing Filipinos until Philippine labor laws are clarified, Dylan Bowman of Kuwait New Agency reported.

While Qatar has promised to give athletes and spectators "the games of your life" it seems many of the construction workers who built the facilities won't share the same happy memories from their Games experience.

Efforts have been made in Qatar to improve the standard of living for the legions of migrant workers, but it seems that plenty more needs to be done. Workers who refurbished Khalifa Stadium, venue for Friday's extravagant opening ceremony, say contractors continue to rob them of a slice of their paltry wages.

About 350 Nepalese expatriates, including a number of women, are stranded in Qatar after their employers have vanished following the completion of their project.

Speaking to Gulf Times yesterday, an official of the Nepalese embassy said the stranded workers belonged to a company which had its labour accommodation and some other offices in the Industrial Area. The company’s main office in the Industrial Area was reportedly shifted sometime last month to the Vegetable Market area.

Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation's (Kahramaa) decision to impose a fee on the public taps put up by Qataris in front of their houses, has invited sharp reactions from various quarters. Prominent citizens termed Kahramaa's decision as ‘inhuman’ and the fee as ‘exorbitant’.

Being nationals, Qataris are eligible for free domestic consumption of power and water. And several nationals have put up public taps in front of their houses to quench the thirst of hapless expatriate labourers and pedestrians during summer.

The embassy of Nepal, with the support of community members, has rented a camp in the industrial area to accommodate stranded Nepalese workers.

Rajendra Pandey, Charge d' Affaires at the embassy told The Peninsula yesterday that the facility can accommodate 50 to 60 workers at one time. Workers facing distressful situations will be provided shelter in the camp until their problems are resolved or the authorities concerned take a final decision on their pending cases.

Sexual harassment, non-payment of salaries and poor living conditions are among the reasons why a growing number of Indonesian women abandon their employers, diplomatic sources here said.

Cases of abuse reported by Indonesian domestic helpers to their mission is increasing over the years, the Gulf Times reported yesterday, releasing data provided by the mission. The cases of absconding maids has increased to 261 this year compared to 182 last year.

The question and answer session at a panel discussion on the sponsorship laws in the GCC turned stormy yesterday as decision-makers from the region reacted sharply to what they perceived were veiled attempts by speakers to liken the system to slavery.

The battle lines were, in fact, drawn from the word go as panelists included officials from Qatar's National Human Rights Committee and the International Labor Organisation (ILO), on the one hand, and regional bureaucrats, on the other.