Qatar World Cup 2022 labour exploitation ‘still dire’

Labour exploitation remains dire in Qatar, five years after the Gulf state won the right to host football’s 2022 World Cup, with poor working conditions widespread and still no investigations into the deaths of migrant workers, Amnesty International has found.

Fifa insisted when awarding the country the lucrative event that it would bring public exposure of a culture of chronic labour exploitation. Yet there is still no sign of the promised reforms to the deeply exploitative kafala labour system, which will not be introduced until the end of next year at the earliest.

Amnesty said Fifa had done little to press the hosts of the 2022 event to improve working conditions in the five years since it awarded the World Cup. It also accused the governing body of failing to deliver on a promise, made last May, to investigate the detention of BBC and German journalists who were trying to research migrants’ working and living conditions.

Media outlets in India reported yesterday that the country’s embassy had registered the death of 260 Indians in the Gulf state this year – including 20 this month – compared with 279 registered in the whole of last year.

Amnesty said it had carried out five research missions to Qatar in the past four years to investigate the condition of the migrant worker population, which is expected to reach two million within the next two years.

It has found that an initial commitment to expand the labour inspector force to 400 by the end of 2015 has been suspended by a year, to the end of 2016. Limited reforms to the kafala system – which ties workers to their employers and prevents them from changing jobs or leaving the country without the permission of their sponsor – will still require workers to seek their employer’s consent to switch jobs or leave Qatar.

Workers are still not being paid their very basic wage on time, according to Amnesty. A wage protection system that requires businesses to pay workers on time by direct bank deposits became law in February but came into force only last month. Late payment of wages is thought to be a widespread problem that leaves migrant workers and their families back home in desperate situations.

Mustafa Qadri, Gulf migrant rights researcher at Amnesty International, said: “Too little has been done to address rampant migrant labour abuse. Qatar’s persistent labour reform delays are a recipe for a human rights disaster. The reforms proposed by the government fail to tackle the central issues that leave so many workers at the mercy of employers, yet even these changes have been delayed.

“Unless action is taken – and soon – then every football fan who visits Qatar in 2022 should ask themselves how they can be sure they are not benefiting from the blood, sweat and tears of migrant workers.

“Fifa has played its part in this sorry performance. It knew there were labour rights issues in Qatar. It must work closely with the Qatari authorities and business partners to ensure the World Cup is not built on exploitation.”

The governing body did not respond to The Independent’s request for comment last night.

Amnesty urged Fifa to press the Qatari authorities to implement and monitor reforms to protect migrant workers. It also wants Fifa and its business partners to put in place human rights due diligence systems that identify and prevent abuses linked to holding the World Cup.

Fifa made no reference to workers’ rights when boasting in September that Qatar’s 40,000-capacity Khalifa International Stadium was close to becoming the first completed. It quoted the project engineer as saying he was “very happy” with the rapid progress of renovation works at the site.

It was reported last week that migrant labourers in Qatar say they are being paid to fill seats at matches. An entire end of one ground – 1,000 spectators – was made up of builders from south Asia to create an atmosphere between Xavi Hernandez’s Al Sadd side and rivals Al Ahli.