Qatar 2022 and brutal labor exploitation

 Ruben Alexis Hernandez

Between November and December of this year (2022), another edition of the great global football circus will take place, as is the final phase of the world championship, this time in Qatar, a small country located on the Arabian Peninsula. It is a nation with one of the highest per capita incomes in the world and with a high human development index, and yet it has the dubious honor of being in the eye of the storm, in the framework of the construction of sports facilities to be used during the sporting event in question. Note in this regard that many employed workers, mostly from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka, have been grossly underpaid and brutally exploited, to the point that many of them died from various causes, especially from the excessive effort during many daily hours of work and the terrible conditions of the work environment. Human rights violations wholesale, to the point of being denounced by Amnesty International.

The foregoing represents a typical example of how the economic benefit of a minority is always above the welfare and needs of ordinary citizens, who regularly pay even with their lives for their sacrifices in favor of big capital. And what if the final phase of the soccer world championship will leave enormous benefits for a minority, in the midst of the global economic crisis aggravated by factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Eastern Europe. So the show to be held at the end of 2022 will be shameful by all accounts, considering that its organizers and sponsors are directly responsible for the (de facto) enslavement and death of a good part of the workers who have made it possible for the facilities to Qatar sports be in tune for the fabulous business circus:

“An investigation by The Guardian newspaper has revealed that more than 6,500 migrant workers from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have died in Qatar since construction began on the World Cup site. Using data they managed to gather from government sources, since December 2010 an average of 12 migrant workers from these five countries have died every week.

In addition, according to figures from India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka, 5,927 workers have died in Qatar between 2011 and 2020. To these figures must be added the data provided by the Pakistani embassy in Qatar, which confirms another 824 deaths of Pakistani workers between 2010 and 2020.

However, the number of deaths is significantly higher since the figures do not include those of the countries from which many other people who are working there come from, such as the Philippines and Kenya, nor do they include deaths in the last months of 2020 or of the first months of 2021.

The Guardian explains in its report that 'Qatar's grim death toll is revealed in lengthy spreadsheets of official data listing the causes of death: multiple blunt force injuries due to a fall from a height; suffocation by hanging; undetermined cause of death from decomposition. In the report they assure that the most common cause is what they call 'natural death', which shows that such qualifications are made without an autopsy (...)

There are less than two years to go before the World Cup in Qatar and the country continues to accumulate controversy over the terrible working conditions of the workers who are building the facilities for the upcoming soccer event.

There are already several countries that have protested against this situation and it is expected that, as such an important date approaches, more will focus on the violation of human rights that is taking place in the Gulf country, that, according to an investigation by The Guardian, some 6,500 workers have died since the construction of infrastructure for the sporting event began (...).

In 2013, this same medium already published a report on the abuse and exploitation of migrant workers who were preparing the emirate for the construction of the 2022 World Cup facilities and estimated that some 4,000 migrant workers would die.

Breach of contracts and extreme situations

Late payments, breach of contracts and even suspension of wages are some of the abuses committed against migrant workers in Qatar for the 2022 World Cup, according to a Human Rights Watch report.

Between January 2019 and May 2020, the organization spoke to more than 90 migrant workers working in the country, all of whom reported various types of labor abuse. The report explains that there were even workers who told the organization that their employers stopped paying them and, often, they had difficulty feeding themselves.

Amnesty denounces abuses and exploitation

Amnesty International has called on FIFA to use its influence over the Qatari authorities to help end abuses against migrant workers, on the occasion of the qualifying matches for the Qatar 2022 World Cup. The organization has detected eight forms of exploitation suffered by some workers that he has denounced on his website.

Among the forms of exploitation, the organization speaks of the "terrible living conditions" of some workers who endure overcrowding and lack of hygiene and safety in their accommodation. They also talk about workers suffering lies about wages and payment delays. In addition, the organization has detected forced labor and threats to workers who complain about conditions or ask for help.

The Kafala system, key in the violation of rights

Although in August of last year the Gulf country announced the new minimum wage and dismantled the kafala employment system, it has been key in the violation of the rights of migrant workers in Qatar.

The kafala system is a form of modern slavery, according to many NGOs and is present in various countries such as Lebanon, Jordan and other countries of the Persian Gulf. With it, citizens and private companies take on the role of sponsors and governments delegate to these sponsors the supervision and responsibility of foreign workers.

Without the permission of these sponsors, a worker cannot change jobs, quit work, or return to his or her country. In this way, there are countries that take advantage of migrant workers and exploit them under this system” https://www.publico.es/economia/explotacion-laboral-miles-trabajodores-fallecidos-cimientos-mundial-qatar-2022. html