these workers who died on construction sites in Qatar… The human toll of the World Cup

Between the circumstances for awarding the competitors, the environmental influence of air-conditioned stadiums or the authoritarian regime in Qatar, there isn’t any scarcity of controversy across the 2022 World Cup. However one topic is much more delicate than the others: the human toll of the competitors. Many employees have certainly misplaced their lives to construct the infrastructure of the competitors.

Who’re these employees?

Among the many 3 million inhabitants of Qatar, round 85-90% of the inhabitants is made up of international employees. Qatari residents occupy positions of duty they usually have been accustomed for many years to resorting to international employees to occupy essentially the most troublesome jobs, similar to that of employees on development websites. Tens of hundreds of employees from Africa and Asia (notably Bangladesh, India and Nepal) have been employed en masse to construct the stadiums and infrastructure of the competitors. Some estimates recommend the variety of 35,000 international employees current in Qatar on the top of the works.

What number of deaths on development websites?

As is usually the case with any calculation, even essentially the most macabre, completely different variations are opposed… Formally, the organizers acknowledge solely three employees who died on the development websites following a piece accident: two Nepalese and a Briton. The Qataris additionally acknowledge 37 different deaths on the development websites, however in accordance with them they don’t seem to be consecutive to a piece accident. These can be deaths attributable to “cardiovascular ailments”.

The NGO Amnesty Worldwide deplores this obscure classification and estimated in its final annual report that the class “cardiovascular ailments” dangers ” disguise a excessive variety of deaths which might be, the truth is, unexplained “. It counts 2,800 such deaths in Qatar between 2011 and 2020 amongst international employees. The Staff lately defined that the exhaustion and overwork imposed on these employees can fall into this class and, even when it isn’t strictly talking a piece accident, it’s certainly a dying ensuing from the presence of those employees on development websites…

On the different finish, the British newspaper The Guardian printed a shock survey in February 2021, placing ahead the dramatic determine of 6,500 employees who died on the World Cup websites. The Staff nonetheless, believes that this determine, primarily based on information collected from 5 Asian nations, is overestimated as a result of it might be a worldwide mortality and which doesn’t solely concern the development websites of the World Cup. The human toll of the competitors would due to this fact be between the three or 40 deaths acknowledged by Qatar, and the 6,500 deaths deplored by The Guardian. A variety sadly too huge to get a exact concept…

Dramatic working circumstances

One factor is definite: international employees who come to Qatar should work and reside in undignified circumstances. Just like the Additional Investigation broadcast on October 13 on France 2, information stories have highlighted that migrants are sometimes crammed into substandard housing. They sleep in bunk beds and in essentially the most complete promiscuity. Most are topic to hellish speeds, with typically solely two days off per thirty days for some in accordance with testimonies. It’s clear that this frenetic tempo may end up in deaths from overwork…

?? From unsanitary housing to the “waste market”, uncover the opposite facet of Qatar!

?Qatar 2022: a French scandal?

⏯️#ComplementDenquete to (re) see in replay: https://t.co/TOAd8GLiUw pic.twitter.com/eY2DTLftpU

— Additional investigation (@Cdenquete) October 14, 2022

What measures from Qatar?

Confronted with the rising controversy, the host nation of the World Cup took a number of measures, together with the institution of a minimal wage, however most of them got here late, in 2020, when the majority of the work had already been accomplished. Formally abolished, the kafala (or sponsorhip) system would proceed in follow. This makes employers omnipotent and forces employees to acquire the settlement of their boss to alter jobs or obtain an exit visa to go away the Emirate… Different employees discover themselves trapped in one other manner as a result of pressured to repay the mortgage they took out to pay the “recruitment charges” guaranteeing them a spot as a employee in Qatar…

Simply earlier than the World Cup, the Emirate additionally precipitated controversy by refusing to create a compensation fund for international employees killed or injured on the development websites of the competitors. The host nation hides behind the help and insurance coverage fund created in 2018 for international employees not receiving a wage. “Each dying is a tragedy (however) there are not any standards for establishing this compensation fund. The place are the victims? Do you’ve got the names? How will you get these numbers? If an individual entitled to compensation has not acquired it, allow them to come ahead and we’ll assist them.“, solely replied the Minister of Labor, Ali bin Samikh al-Marri, in an interview granted to theAFP. A dialogue of the deaf…