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I make contact with Gladys (not her real name) late at night, after her employers from the Qatari elite have gone to bed.

In a brief online conversation she tells me she works from 8am to 11pm every day. She cleans, helps prepare food and looks after the children.

She eats what's left from the family's meals, and says she hasn't had a day off since she started 18 months ago.

"Madam is crazy," Gladys, a Filipina woman in her 40s, says about her employer. "She shouts at me every day."

Before Qatar won the competition to host the 2022 World Cup, foreign workers were unable to change jobs or leave the country without their employer's permission. It's still like this in most Gulf states.

Under scrutiny, Qatar began to introduce reforms, but Amnesty International says these have failed to end a pattern of abuses faced by domestic workers.

For example, Gladys's employer has held on to her passport, preventing her from leaving without his consent.

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But Gladys still feels lucky. At least she has been allowed to keep her phone, she says, unlike some other foreign maids. Also, she is not physically abused. In Qatar, this happens all too often, she says.

There is another reason she wants to stay in her current job - she thinks it's unlikely at her age that she will get a better one. She earns 1,500 rials a month (just under £350) and is able to send it all home to support her family.

Domestic workers' rights

There are an estimated 160,000 foreign domestic workers in Qatar, according to 2021 data from Qatar's Planning and Statistics Authority

In 2017 Qatar introduced the Domestic Workers Law, which limits working hours to 10 hours a day, and requires daily breaks, a weekly day off and paid holidays

In 2020 it also introduced a minimum wage and gave workers the right on paper to change jobs or leave the country without seeking permission

However, Amnesty International says these laws have not been properly implemented or enforced and extreme overwork, lack of rest, and abusive and degrading treatment continue

Joanna Concepcion of Migrante International, a grassroots organisation supporting Filipino overseas workers, says that many keep quiet about bad working conditions because earning money for their families is their overriding priority.

But when those in Gulf states do feel confident enough to talk freely, she says, they often mention serious abuse. One woman said her employer would push her head into a toilet basin and deny her food and water when he was angry.