Migrant Ghanaian workers in Qatar flag SOS warnings
About 200 Ghanaian migrant workers in Qatar are planning a demonstration on Tuesday to protest the non-payment of wages and harsh living conditions that they say they have been suffering.

The group claims to have signed a contract with Accra-based Raman Consultancy with the support of the Labour Office and the Ministry of Manpower for jobs mainly in the construction sector in Qatar.

Three months into their jobs however, the workers say they are yet to receive any payment for work done. They accuse the groups involved of duping them of monies paid prior to arriving in Qatar and the salaries due them.

Abubakari Salifu, one of the migrant workers who spoke to Joy FM on phone, narrated a horrid picture of the situation.
“We thought it was genuine. They have kept us in a certain cave. We are 10 in a room that is not what they promised us. We are only feeding on rice. Apart from rice, bread and coke, we don’t have any food. Our particulars, everything has been taken from us.
“When we invited the consultant, he refused to come to our aid. We have decided to make a peaceful demonstration because the first batch has refused to go to work for one week now. We don’t have our salary. We don’t have an embassy, only the Ghanaian embassy in Saudi Arabia. We’ve asked them to come to our aid, that is Rashid Bawa and he has refused to come to our aid. We have no option and no where to go.”
The planned demonstration of the migrant workers in Qatar comes on the heels of announcements by the Ministry of Manpower Development, Youth and Employment of Ghana in collaboration with private partners Paulson Ventures Ltd, a venture capital investor and Cultural Homestay International of the U.S. to recruit Ghanaian youth to work in the United States.
The exercise involves Ghanaian youths aged between 25 and 45 years who are being recruited to work in the hospitality industry in the United States.
The recruitment exercise started at the Tema Labour Department on Monday under the supervision of the Ministry, with a joint committee of security and human resources experts from the Ministry of Manpower, Youth and Employment, Ministry of Tourism and Diaspora Relations, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ghana Immigration Services, and Paulson Ventures screening the applicants.
The government of Ghana has given its blessing to the exercise.
In an interview with newsmen, Dr Charles Brempong Yeboah, Deputy Minister of Manpower, Youth and Employment, described the exercise as “brain gain”.
He said "We have looked at exportation of human resources from a very myopic perspective in the past as brain drain, but in a globalize market, exportation of human resources is described as brain gain."
He said the nation stands to gain from human resource exportation through remittances, payment of taxes, and acquisition of modern skills and orientation to work at optimum efficiency.
Dr Yeboah assured interested applicants that the relevant public agencies including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, National Security and the Ghana Immigration Services had checked the background of the recruiting companies and found them to be genuine.