The reign of Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani as emir of Qatar, from 1995 to 2013, was controversial.
Although around 88% of Qatar’s residents were and remain foreign workers, laws intended to protect them were rarely enforced. Passport confiscation for the large numbers of migrant workers was commonplace, as were human trafficking and overcrowded and unsanitary labour camps.
The emir arbitrarily made more than 5,000 Qataris of the Ghufran clan stateless, depriving them of state jobs, education and healthcare. Some of them stated that this was collective punishment, because some members were involved in a failed coup attempt in 1996. Injustices have continued as a result.
In 2012, a Qatari court tried the poet Mohamed al Ajami in secret, and sentenced him to life imprisonment, apparently for criticism of the emir. He had already been held in custody for a year, and was released in 2016, following international pressure. A law punishing criticism of the emir with up to five years’ imprisonment remained in place.
