kmcbrid2

So I guess all the other airlines should lock up their FA's in their hotels when they have a layovers in Doha since it is such a dangerous place. This should also apply to all of the young female teachers at the American, British, French and Dutch schools in Doha?

Actually the scene you described was no different than what I saw at the sorority house across the street from my apartment in college. But the sorority was never accused of prostitution.

If this was the only thing that QR did to their FA's then maybe it could pass the same as Akbar claiming that QR has not plans on joining OW. It might be believable at first even though all the other evidence suggest otherwise. But in the end, just like as we have seen with QR joining OW and the new airport, it is just a bunch of lies. They just want to control workers and don't view them as equal let alone humans. You see this in their ground staff in which they believe that people can't think for themselves or make their own decisions.

what you described earlier can be manage better than putting people under house arrest.

InternationalLiving

I know that there are plenty of other big companies (albeit mostly through factories that are contracted out) that abuse their workers, especially in the clothing industry. I personally try to avoid the worst of these. Of course, when it comes to Cambodia, this is partly due to some very convenient arrangements made by the US, who effectively helped destroy the country before taking advantage of its new, low labour rates afterwards - but that's a little OT.
As grahampros pointed out, Qatar maybe the worst, or one of the worst offenders in the industry in this regard, so it is easy to make a more informed choice and spend money elsewhere. With clothing, the choice is a little murkier.

Also, hearing from a former Qatar manager I know, I understand that it is not so easy as to just walk away from the job. Apparently at least one British QR employee was thrown in jail when trying to do so.

I think your statement more-or-less amounts to victim blaming. There will always be a few women who will do something for the right price. That doesn't mean that all of them should be painted with the same brush, so to speak.

If the airline was so concerned about this issue, rather than putting the women under such close surveillance, why not question anyone who is entering the compound to pick up a "guest"? Oh, wait, no... that would mean making a rich and powerful Qatari feel uncomfortable...

kmcbrid2

So I guess I could justify my forefathers bringing slaves to the US because Africa was not a safe place for them? The justification does not right the wrong.

Sixth Freedom

There was a chap called Ian Heywood, who was head of Sales until about 2008. He interviewed me for my job back in 2007. He may have been imprisoned and was certainly confined to the country for a long time. It was reported in the FT and Gordon Brown spoke about it with HBJ Al Thani, the PM of Qatar and Chairman of QR.

I understand from an Australian executive extremely close to Akbar Al Baker that QR had evidence that he may have been trying to take a large amount of confidential data with him, which if true is certainly not on.

On the other hand I have seen lots of QR staff, including senior executives at Ian Heywood's level and more senior, leave Qatar without any such difficulty. My own departure was easy as pie.

InternationalLiving

Ahha, yea, I guess it was Mr Heywood then, I remember hearing something about that way back then. Yes, I'm sure generally it is easy for execs to leave, but of course this may not be so for the lesser-paid and respected cabin crew. Certainly the Visa system is Qatar seems a bit "messed up"...

Sixth Freedom

I think that in theory it is easy for cabin crew and any 'normal' employee to leave.

However the 'clearance' process is extremely burdensome. Lots of signatures (home department, IT, security, housing, uniforms and many more) need to be achieved and of course everybody says "I will take that form and do it tomorrow" so you have to be firm with them to have it all done immediately. I got it all done in a morning but it was extremely stressful and less driven individuals would struggle.

I also understand that there are lots of difficulties with cars (which need to be sold), credit cards and loans (which need to be paid off) which lower paid workers may find hard to resolve quickly.

A common mistake is to not cancel your Qatar credit cards until the month you are meant to leave. In fact you cannot leave for a couple of months after the credit cards have been cancelled so that the bank knows that you do not owe any money. Many people at all levels get caught out by this.

irishguy28

Waaaaay off topic but that logic (?) falls down given that neither the destination, nor the means of transport used, could be deemed in any way safer than their origin.

raporot

nothing interesting in these article.
people like to be slaves.
and what?
90% of Earth population is slaves.and why i must decline flights on these company?
its sounds like in other company's is not slaves.funny.

GUWonder

That is pretty much it. They don't want to be known as a den of prostitution, but the irony is that some of the very men and women who make and enforce these rules to maintain that "respectable" image are frequent clients of prostitutes upon arrival at te QR outstations. The hypocrisy isn't really surprising.

jayagopal50

article has created a long comment section on AIRLINES .NET[if you have the time and inclination to read]

Sixth Freedom

Would love to know which particular ladies you have in mind!

berlinflyer83

I was really excited to fly the 787 for the first time, and booked some award tickets in Qatar business class to Delhi. I've gone and cancelled those flights. Of course it's not very much of my money going their way vs a paying customer, but I just can't participate in that.

I've gone and read more articles about working conditions in Qatar and it's really quite appalling. A friend of mine who worked in Qatar confirmed that this is all true...

And since Qatar Airways doesn't really seem to care to respond thoughtfully to this, any way to pressure say, Skytrax? Or BA which sponsored QR into oneworld?

Edit:
I've created a change.org petition to Skytrax to revoke their ranking, that seems like a good place to start.

https://www.change.org/petitions/sky...5-star-ranking

People here may say this isn't slavery, but arbitrarily seizing bank accounts and controlling freedom of movement is pretty damn close.

Skoodledoo

I've just come off a flight where the drinks trolley tilted back and tipped 90 degrees on to its rear end. No turbulance just overloaded I guess. Lost a couple bottles of wine and smell of alcohol filled the rear cabin. Before I read these articles I wouldn't have thought much more than "oops". However thr first thought in my mind was "hope the crew member on that trolley keeps their job!"

InternationalLiving

Signed. If the petition works it would be a major embarrassment for QR. FYI, I heard that Willie Walsh is a major fanboy of Al Baker...

Agreed... they can't be having a good day today.

berlinflyer83

Thanks! QR definitely values their ranking, as they use it heavily in marketing. I'm hoping a UK-based organization will respond better than Qatar about human rights concerns. But, these petitions are always hard to get off the ground, and for it to really take off the story needs some more mainstream media coverage in Europe and the US.

I'm not naive either, plenty of the other 5-star airlines probably have terrible labor practices. I'd love to see that the end result of this were that Skytrax included consideration of labor practices into their formula. Industry pressure could certainly improve the conditions at all the APAC and ME carriers employing migrant workers.