The people who lived at the safehouse (most, but not all, of whom are Nepali) came to Qatar legally, in order to work, and were then mistreated and abandoned by their sponsors. Because we foreign laborers in Qatar need our sponsors' permission to leave the country, change jobs, or do anything else, these men were NOT free to leave the country, nor could they afford to do so. Qatar simply does not provide a legal course of action for people in this situation: they cannot work, and they cannot leave. Gokul helped these workers get their paperwork in order to go home, and in the meantime they lived in the safehouse.
Canarybird, please do tell your neighbor. It's likely he knows Gokul already.
There is also a group of people meeting this evening to figure out what, if anything, we can do to help.
Yes, this email is from Gokul, who was running the safehouse.
I posted an article here on Qatar Living about my visit to the safehouse: Visiting stranded workers in Doha.
The people who lived at the safehouse (most, but not all, of whom are Nepali) came to Qatar legally, in order to work, and were then mistreated and abandoned by their sponsors. Because we foreign laborers in Qatar need our sponsors' permission to leave the country, change jobs, or do anything else, these men were NOT free to leave the country, nor could they afford to do so. Qatar simply does not provide a legal course of action for people in this situation: they cannot work, and they cannot leave. Gokul helped these workers get their paperwork in order to go home, and in the meantime they lived in the safehouse.
Canarybird, please do tell your neighbor. It's likely he knows Gokul already.
There is also a group of people meeting this evening to figure out what, if anything, we can do to help.