This is typical "isn't Qatar and FIFA so evil, fellow westerners?" bait. I'm not surprised it's coming from a British paper, the Brits were fuming that the rest of the world ignored their virtue signaling calls to boycott the World Cup, and it ended up being the most fun WC in decades.

The headline itself is slimy. "World Cup security guards still jailed in Qatar after dispute over unpaid wages" makes it seem like they were jailed for disputing payment. I guess "Three out of hundreds of security guards jailed for overstaying visa, and btw they also had a dispute over unpaid wages" wouldn't stir as much outrage in the reader.

The article itself is all over the place, just inserting emotional outrage bait instead of telling a coherent story, but you can still piece together what happened.

1. Foreign/migrant workers signed a 6-month contract working as security guards

2. According to Qatar law the employer is allowed to end the employment early with 1 month notice

3. The employer lets them go 3 months early, as is their right

4. The employer tells them to leave. Some workers stay and want to continue to live and eat at the employer's camp. The employer tries to kick them out.

5. Per the terms of the work permit, migrant foreigners are not allowed to stay in Qatar if they don't have employment. When their employer fired them, they had to leave.

6. The government ends up deporting most of the now-unemployed workers, as is the law

7. The three who chose to stay end up being jailed for 6 months and fined for unspecified reasons, but it's probably for illegally staying in Qatar. Presumably they will be deported at the end of their sentence.

8. The article doesn't say whether the hundreds of workers at least got a month of extra pay since the employer ended their contract early. Hopefully they got paid. The article focuses on the workers requesting 3 months pay (full remainder of contract), but Qatar law would only require 1 month, there's no chance of them getting 3 months.

Don't get me wrong, it really sucks, but this isn't a "Qatar/FIFA evil" thing. It's by the book capitalism, the very culture and system that westerners and the IMF have exported (always with a stick) to the four corners of the world.

Desperate gig workers sign one-sided contracts. Uneducated poor workers are also unlikely to be familiar with labor laws, so they could sign a 3-year contract even though the employer can end it with 1 month notice. Now on top of that, they're foreigners.

Yet, I see nothing here that doesn't have a direct equivalent in most western countries. What happens if a Mexican fruit picker living and working at a California farm wants to stay at the farm after he's been fired? Does he get to stay? I doubt it. How is that any different?

In most of the world, working foreigners can't stay without a job. For example, in Thailand, foreigners on a work permit whose employment is ended by the employer have 1 week to leave, or they are breaking the law and will be deported after jail. But westerners don't have a hate boner for Thailand the way they do Qatar, and it remains one of their most popular tourist destinations, so we're not bombarded with these articles.

The only awful part of that story, for me, is jailing and fining poor people. I get that the law is the law, and they want to discourage people staying in their country illegally. I think 1 month of jail and no fine would have been just as effective, then ban them from the country. Give longer sentences and fines if they come back (illegaly). It's not like they were violent criminals.