Amnesty International said Monday Qatar's latest employment reforms do little to improve working conditions on World Cup 2022 building sites and urged football's world governing body FIFA to take action.
The Gulf state has promised to get rid of the country's controversial kafala employment system from Tuesday onwards, via a new law.
However, Amnesty said in a statement Monday that the reforms are "meagre" and the risk of forced labour and other abuses remained high for migrant workers.
"This new law may get rid of the word "sponsorship" but it leaves the same basic system intact," said James Lynch, Deputy Director for Global Issues at Amnesty International, in the statement.
"FIFA, its sponsors and foreign governments seeking business ties with Qatar cannot and must not use this reform to claim that the problem of migrant labour abuse has been solved," he added.
Qatar's Government Communications Office rejected Amnesty's claims on Monday, however.
"We remain committed to the development of a labor system that is fair to both employers and employees alike," the state-run Qatar News Agency reported the office as saying.
The Kafala system requires unskilled labourers to have an in-country sponsor, usually their employer, who is responsible for their visa and legal status.
The practice has been criticised by human rights organizations for creating opportunities for the exploitation of workers.
It is not the first time Amnesty has criticized Qatar's workplace conditions ahead of the 2022 World Cup. In October a worker died in a work-related incident at a stadium in Qatar, local organizers said.
It was reportedly the first work-related death at a stadium though others have died in "non-work incidents" at World Cup grounds.
