Qatar World Cup construction ‘will leave 4,000 migrant workers dead’
Saturday, 28 September 2013 00:00
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Qatar are under pressure to change their policy towards migrant workers after claims construction on the 2022 World Cup could claim the lives of up to 4,000 labourers.
A report in UK newspaper The Guardian claims at least 44 workers died between June 4 and August 8 this year.
The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) says the annual death toll could rise to 600 a year – almost a dozen a week – unless the Qatari Government makes urgent reforms.
The ITUC says at least half a million workers from countries like Nepal, India and Sri Lanka are expected to flood into Qatar to complete work on stadiums and other infrastructure before 2022.
The ITUC says unless changes are made, 4,000 workers will die before the tournament begins.
Quoting documents obtained by the Nepalese embassy in the Qatari capital Doha, The Guardian said thousands of Nepalese – the largest group of labourers in Qatar - faced exploitation and abuses amounting to “modern-day slavery”.
Aidan McQuade, director of Anti-Slavery International, who has seen the documents presented by the newspaper, told AFP the evidence was “certainly highly indicative of a brutal working environment which is not good for anybody.
“It is indicative of forced labour and it seems to even go beyond that. This is an open secret, and there is not a concerted effort (by the Qatari authorities) to stop it.”
The Guardian said it had found evidence of forced labour on a huge World Cup infrastructure project, although work has not yet begun on building the stadiums for the tournament.
It said some Nepalese men had alleged they had not been paid for months and had had salaries held back to prevent them fleeing, while a group of 30 had sought refuge in the Nepalese embassy to escape the conditions of their employment.
Some workers complained that employers had confiscated workers’ passports and refused to issue identity cards, while others said they had been denied access to drinking water despite the fierce desert heat, which can reach 50 degrees Celsius.
One Nepalese migrant employed at Lusail City, which will include the 90,000-capacity stadium in which the World Cup final will be played, said: “We’d like to leave but the company won’t let us.”
The body organising the World Cup, the Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee, told The Guardian it was “deeply concerned” by the allegations.
McQuade said the situation would improve quickly if the Qatari authorities introduced three measures.
“We call on the Qatari authorities to get rid of the ‘kafala’ system which limits employees to one employer,” he said.
“They should also allow freedom of association so that workers can negotiate better conditions collectively, and they should set a minimum rate of pay.”
FIFA’s decision to award the 2022 World Cup to Qatar was controversial.
It appears increasingly likely that it will have to be played in the European winter because of the intense summer heat.
