Will Qatar and Fifa remedy the abuse of migrant workers?

Almost 12 years ago, on 2 December 2010, the football world was shocked that Qatar had won the right to host the Fifa Men’s World Cup 2022. The Gulf peninsula state, with a population of almost two million, had only three stadiums and little other infrastructure, and summer temperatures of up to 50C.

There was concern about the feasibility of delivering the World Cup in Qatar’s desert temperatures for both fans and footballers, who are not allowed, by Fifa’s rules, to play in more than 32C (89.6F) without mandatory cooling breaks. But Qatar batted away these concerns with their plans to build solar-powered air cooling stadiums, and necessary infrastructure like a metro, a new airport and a substantial number of hotels.

Little to no attention was given by the sporting and state authorities, however, to the conditions for the millions of migrant workers who would be needed to build the massive infrastructure and stadiums for the World Cup in extreme heat.

In 2010, low-paid migrants from Asia and Africa already made up more than 90 per cent of the country’s workforce. In its 2010 evaluation of Qatar’s bid, Fifa acknowledged the “significant human resources” required for the considerable number of infrastructure projects, but otherwise did not require labour rights commitments from Qatar, despite human rights reports detailing abuses against migrant workers there.

Winning the bid did not have to spell disaster. Qatari authorities could have made the necessary reforms to ensure that workers had decent living and working conditions. A 2012 Human Rights Watch report identified Qatar’s systemic gaps in labour protection, as well as its abusive kafala (sponsorship) system that ties workers’ legal status to their employer.

The kafala system enables serious abuses including forced labour, such as charging recruitment fees that trap workers in debt, confiscating their passports, stealing their wages and providing unsafe working conditions and crowded and unsanitary labour camps. Several human rights organisations and trade unions issued similar warnings and recommendations.

The past decade has been a tug of war to secure reforms to safeguard workers and end the kafala system. Under pressure from the International Labour Organisation (ILO), Qatar introduced key labour protections including a minimum wage, first introduced in 2017 and formally adopted in 2020, an end to a requirement for exit permits from employers for migrants to leave the country, and allowing migrant workers to change jobs before the end of their contracts without first obtaining their employer’s consent. They also operationalised the Workers’ Support and Insurance Fund to pay workers back wages when companies defaulted.

These reforms are crucial. Many workers were able to send money to their families, pay school fees for their children and build new homes. But many other workers did not feel the impact of these reforms because they were introduced too late or were poorly enforced. And reforms such as the 2014 worker welfare standards and the 2017 universal reimbursement scheme which reimbursed workers charged illegal recruitment fees, applied only to people contracted to work on projects for the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, the government’s World Cup agency.

Neither Qatar nor Fifa spared much thought for the migrants needed for the World Cup, but after 12 years of hard work, Qatar is about to deliver the games. It has not been an easy road with a three and half year-forced isolation by its neighbours and the Covid-19 pandemic, but the Qatar World Cup’s lasting legacy will hinge on whether they can lock in and build on reforms to stem worker abuses.

The most crucial test is whether Qatar and Fifa will provide a remedy for the deaths and other abuses since 2010. Fifa and Qatar should not forget migrant workers who returned home humiliated without their wages, injured or dead, with families left uncompensated and in debt.

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In July, a worker who had left Qatar with seven months’ unpaid wages told us: “When surviving in Qatar became unaffordable despite charity support for food, we decided to return. I was gutted on the flight back. Homecoming is usually a happy occasion when we bring back gifts for families. I was instead returning empty-handed without any savings, on a ticket purchased by my family with borrowed money.”

After over a year and a half of waiting, he finally got the overdue check via the Qatari embassy. “It was like a dream,” he said. “With the compensation, I managed to get out of the debt trap my family had been stuck in for years.”

Deaths and harm cannot be undone, but for so many migrant workers and families waiting for compensation, some financial assistance – a slender slice of the huge profits from the event – could have far-reaching consequences. A large-scale attempt to give back to those migrant workers who were short-changed while making the World Cup possible would send a powerful, positive message from Fifa and Qatari authorities.

It is not too late to commit to a remedy fund and to end this long, tumultuous journey on a positive note that finally puts migrant workers at the centre of the World Cup they made possible.

Rothna Begum is a senior women’s rights researcher at Human Rights Watch