Qatar's death row and the invisible migrant workforce deemed unworthy of due process 19/01/2023, 10:36 The kafala system operates across the region, and plays a role in death penalty cases across the Gulf. Most of the other death penalty cases we found were in Saudi Arabia, where drug offences account for around 60% (221 cases out of 385) of all foreign national death sentences. In Saudi Arabia, drug trafficking accounts for the disproportionate number of Pakistanis subject to capital punishment, with more Pakistani citizens executed annually than any other foreign nationality, most for heroin smuggling. We also found 130 foreign nationals under sentence of death or executed for homicide in Saudi Arabia during this period (which constitutes 34% of the total foreign nationals facing the death penalty in this jurisdiction for all crimes). These people were predominantly from Yemen, Pakistan, the Philippines and Egypt. The majority (some 89%) were male. City skyline at night. Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh at night. Shutterstock/Hany Musallam In the UAE, we found 114 foreign nationals facing the death penalty for homicide. Many were from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, with 82% being male. Interestingly, we found at least 27 Indian males who had been sentenced to death following violent crimes related to their bootlegging activities. We found 31 foreign nationals were sentenced to death for drug trafficking, from the following nationalities (in order of highest number): Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, India, Oman and Saudi Arabia. Smaller numbers (less than 10 per category) of foreign nationals were sentenced for other crimes such as child rape, robbery, adultery, terrorism and kidnapping. We found fewer cases in the remaining two jurisdictions. In Bahrain, we recorded 17 foreign nationals on death row for homicide during this period from nations such as Bangladesh, Nepal and the Philippines, all of whom were male. We also found one case of a foreign male from another Gulf state (exact nationality unknown) having been sentenced to death for drug trafficking, and one Nepali male national sentenced to death for rape. One illustrative case is that of a Filipino man, who, according to media reports, was convicted in Bahrain of killing a Pakistani national who had taken the Filipino’s passport as collateral for a loan he had made to him. The Filipino was looking for another job and he needed the passport so he could file an employment application. He allegedly killed the Pakistani man in order to retrieve his passport and not have to repay the loan. Finally, in Kuwait we found 12 cases of foreign nationals subject to capital punishment from 2016 to 2021 for homicide (as compared to a total of 47 foreign nationals for all crimes). They came from places such as Egypt, Ethiopia and the Philippines. Here, seven were male and five were female – this jurisdiction highlights the phenomenon of domestic workers facing the death penalty after acting in selfdefence against their employer. Maids are also at times seen as convenient scapegoats upon which to place blame for a murder committed by someone else. https://theconversation.com/qatars-death-row-and-the-invisible-migrant-workforce-deemed-unworthy-of-due-process-191017 Page 10 of 12