The Qatar World Cup final could not take place on a more pertinent day

Sunday’s World Cup final in Qatar coincides with the UN’s International Migrants Day. The treatment of migrant workers has been a central part of the concern around the Gulf state hosting the prestigious football tournament, alongside other human rights issues, including the country’s criminalisation of homosexuality.

We do not know, and may never know for sure, how many migrant workers died or were seriously injured building the $200bn infrastructure required for the World Cup to take place in Qatar. What we do have are the voices of grieving families, left without loved ones and without compensation.

The price migrant workers have paid for the world’s enjoyment of a football tournament is indisputably high – and includes wage theft, unpaid overtime, injuries, passport theft, discrimination and death, according to human rights groups.

The Business and Human Rights Resource Centre has recorded 26 cases of reported abuse affecting migrant workers in Qatar since the World Cup began. The body says these figures are “just the tip of the iceberg”, as workers face restrictions when making reports.

The UN reminds us that, regardless of the reasons why people leave their home countries, “migrants and displaced people represent some of the most vulnerable and marginalised groups in society”. They are at risk of abuse, exploitation and xenophobic attacks, often fuelled by misinformation or for political expediency.

It’s true that Qatar has recently made some crucial labour reforms – and that Qatar is not the only country in the world where migrants are exploited or stigmatised. One of the concerns about Western criticism of the Middle Eastern country is that we, in the West, should get our own house in order. This is something that Fizza Qureshi, Anastasia Gavalas and Julia Tinsley-Kent from Migrants’ Rights Network highlighted in an op-ed for Voices.

Only last Wednesday the UK saw another tragedy in the English Channel, where people in an inflatable dinghy lost their lives and others, including women and children, were rushed to hospital where they fought for their lives. This came only days after Rishi Sunak and his divisive home secretary, Suella Braverman, outlined a five-point plan on migration that was condemned by rights groups as treating asylum seekers like criminals.

The excitement around the World Cup has been tempered for many. As our chief football writer, Miguel Delaney, puts it: “No sporting competition should involve any human suffering or death, let alone the unquantifiable abuse of migrant workers in Qatar or the thousands of deaths that literally cannot be counted because the state refuses to investigate.”

If we truly care about migrants, we should look closer to home, too.

Yours,

Harriet Williamson

Voices commissioning editor