By Andrew Warshaw in Doha
November 17 – Amnesty International has urged FIFA to take a tougher line over the plight of migrant workers in Qatar as a damning new report highlights widespread abuse of human rights in the country that is preparing to stage the 2022 World Cup.
Twenty-four hours after 2022 organisers proudly unveiled details of their first stadium design, with work due to begin in early 2014, Amnesty published a hard-hitting 150-page indictment of how migrant workers are treated in Qatar where 88% of the population are from overseas.
The report, The Dark Side of Migration: Spotlight on Qatar’s construction sector ahead of the World Cup, details the scale of exploitation suffered in Qatar’s construction sector – including those employed on multi-million dollar projects run by Qatari and international companies. The deaths of dozens of Qatar’s 1.2 million migrant workers due primarily to poor or non-existent construction site safety, shocked the world a few weeks ago and has become a hotter talking point than the Summer heat of Qatar and whether to stage the World Cup in winter.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter raised the issue with the Emir of Qatar during a recent visit here but Amnesty said world football’s governing body needed to show greater concern as a matter of priority.
“FIFA has a duty to send a strong public message that it will not tolerate human rights abuses on construction projects related to the World Cup,” said Amnesty secretary general Salil Shetty. ”Many migrants arrive in Qatar full of hopes, only to have these crushed soon after they arrive. There’s no time to delay – the government must act now to end this abuse.”
“Unless critical, far-reaching steps are taken immediately, hundreds of thousands of migrant workers who will be recruited in the coming years to deliver Qatar’s vision face a high risk of being abused.”
Like many human rights organisations, trade unions and United Nations officials, Amnesty wants the sponsorship-based kefala system, which stops migrant workers leaving the country without their employers’ express permission, scrapped.
The system recently extended into football with the high-profile case of Zahir Belounis, the French-Algerian player who joined the gravy train to Qatar but wound up a “destroyed man” after having his dreams shattered as a result of unpaid wages pushing him into poverty and failed attempts to return home.
The report’s findings is bound to increase fears that workers recruited at World Cup sites could be subjected to exploitation.
Abuses highlighted at a packed Doha press conference where the new Amnesty findings were launched include non-payment of wages, harsh and dangerous working conditions and appalling standards of accommodation.
In one case, the report said, Nepalese employees of a company delivering supplies to a construction project associated with the planned FIFA headquarters during the 2022 World Cup said they were “treated like cattle”, working up to 12-hour days every day of the week, even during Qatar’s searing summer heat.
World Cup organisers have made it clear that they intend using the tournament as a tool for fairer and more equitable workers’ rights. But Amnesty said FIFA had to act independently of this and put pressure on the Qatar authorities to ensure the lives of migrant workers are improved sooner rather than later.
“It’s not enough for FIFA to downplay its responsibilities of this issue,” James Lynch, Amnesty’s researcher on Gulf Migrants’ Rights, told reporters.
“The World Cup is FIFA’s tournament. It carries its name and FIFA has a responsibility to make sure that human rights abuses don’t take place in the staging or preparation of the World Cup.”
“We expect FIFA to engage closely with Qatar 2022 and the government. It needs to send a strong message to the Qatari authorities and the construction sector that human rights have to be respected, not only stadiums and training facilities but also hotels and key transport facilities.”
Lynch said Amnesty wrote to FIFA about the report before last month’s FIFA executive committee meeting. “They responded by saying they were committed to human rights…but what is slightly worrying is some of their language suggests the priority is Brazil (2014) and Russia (2018) and that Qatar is nine years away. From our perspective we would say these issues are urgent and need to be addressed now. It can’t wait.”
Amnesty carried out interviews with approximately 210 migrant workers in the construction sector, including 101 individual interviews, during two visits to Qatar in October 2012 and March 2013. The organization also engaged with 22 companies involved in construction projects in Qatar while researchers held at least 14 meetings with Qatari government representatives.
“It is simply inexcusable in one of the richest countries in the world, that so many migrant workers are being ruthlessly exploited, deprived of their pay and left struggling to survive,” said Shetty.
“Construction companies and the Qatari authorities alike are failing migrant workers. Employers in Qatar have displayed an appalling disregard for the basic human rights of migrant workers. Many are taking advantage of a permissive environment and lax enforcement of labour protections to exploit construction workers.
“Companies must ensure that migrant workers employed on construction projects linked to their operations are not being abused. They should be proactive and not just take action when abuses are drawn to their attention. Turning a blind eye to any form of exploitation is unforgivable, particularly when it is destroying people’s lives and livelihoods.”
Researchers met dozens of construction workers who were prevented from leaving the country for many months by their employers – leaving them trapped in Qatar with no way out.
Faced with mounting debts through being unpaid and unable to support their families, many have suffered severe psychological distress with some even driven to the brink of suicide, Amnesty said.
“The world’s spotlight will continue to shine on Qatar in the run-up to the 2022 World Cup offering the government a unique chance to demonstrate on a global stage that they are serious about their commitment to human rights and can act as a role model to the rest of the region,” said Shetty.
Hasan Al-Thawadi, the secretary general, Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee, speaking the previous day at the unveiling of the design of the Al-Wakrah Stadium said: “For us any number [of deaths] above zero is unacceptable and we are working to make sure that stays that way. “
Al-Thawadi said Qatar would not shirk its responsibilities in tackling the controversial kefala system.
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