In November 2022, the World Cup will kick of in Qatar. But even before the first whistle
is blown, it’s already a World Cup of Controversy. In this video we’ll look at the monumental
construction programme the Qatari government has undertaken...
“It’s impressive, they are big challenging projects.”
How they’ve managed to achieve them...
“Migrant workers are absolutely vital to the delivery of the world cup.”
And who has been hurt - and ever killed - along the way.
“Many talk about being mis-sold a dream.” “Perhaps the most grotesque example of sports-washing
and how football is contributing to the violation of human rights and actual killing of people.”
“These are men who have travelled across the world to provide for their families and
for them to die of unknown causes and arrive home in a coffin leaves these families in
a dire situation.”
We’ll also look at the genuine progress that has been made on employment rights since
Qatar was awarded the world cup in 2010. And at the challenges still facing workers there.
"I had to take a loan from my relatives. That’s how I managed the cost.”
That’s all coming up on DW Business Beyond.
“A world cup is a pretty big deal. Dozens of national football teams from all four corners
of globe arriving in one place, each bringing with them tens if not hundreds of thousands
of fans. Not to mention the world’s media, the medical staff, the sponsors.”
When Qatar won the right to hold the 2022 competition, it was in no position to host
them. That’s why it promised a vast construction programme like the world has rarely seen.
Since then it’s been building eight new stadiums. It’s doubled the size of Doha’s
airport. It’s built a brand new metro system for the capital, laid more than a thousand
kilometres of new highway, and is preparing tens of thousands of new hotel rooms.
“There are all sorts of transport infrastructure upgrades and buildings that are taking place.
Now they’re not officially part of the World Cup project, but of course, they’re intrinsically
related, because without them, how would people travel.
“The programme has been going very well. Many of the projects are either completed
or ahead of schedule. So how have the Qataris done it? Well two things: money and migrants.”
For Qatar, the money part is easy. It’s one of the top ten wealthiest nations on earth
((“GDP per Capita: $62,000”)) because of its vast oil reserves.
“But what it doesn’t have vast reserves of… is people.”
The Qatari economy is heavily reliant on workers from overseas.
Economic migrants make up the vast majority of the people in Qatar. The country has over
two million migrant workers - representing over 90% of the working population. The vast
majority come from Asia and Africa, with the top five countries being India, Bangladesh,
Pakistan, Egypt and the Philippines.
“This high proportion of migrant workers in the population is not unusual in the Arab
world. Countries like the UAE, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia ((show flags)) all rely heavily
on people coming from overseas to keep their economies going.”
“We experience in many areas of the world that we don’t have enough workers and that
workers are migrating, within the country, within Europe for example, or from the whole
Asia area to Qatar and other Arabian states.”
In the case of Qatar, the extra attention in the run-up to the World Cup has shone a
light on the treatment of its migrant workers. And plenty of people have not liked what they’ve
seen.
“Migrant workers, many of whom are low paid migrant workers, are often housed in so-called
labour camps. So these are kind of dormitory-style accommodation where workers might be sharing
a room with six-to-eight other workers in bunk beds in incredibly cramped rooms.”
“Many talk about being mis-sold a dream - where they’re hired by recruitment agencies
in their home countries and in that recruitment to those agencies they usually have to pay
a high fee, and then they’re taken to Qatar. There the wages can be much lower than promised.
“Much of the criticism of Qatar’s employment practices over the past decade has centred
around how it recruits workers.”
Qatar and other Arab Gulf states developed a system called “Kafala” - meaning sponsorship
- to bring in workers from around the world. Anyone who wants to work in Qatar needs to
have a "sponsor" - a person or party based in Qatar. The sponsors use people in other
countries like Bangladesh for example as agents. Their job is to travel around, looking for
workers. Once they find them, the agent takes money for a visa, and the worker makes their
way to Qatar, where they'll work for the sponsor.
Kafala puts a lot of power in the hands of the sponsor. Because the worker’s residency
rights are tied to their employment contracts, the sponsor can stop them switching jobs.
And the inability to change employer leaves workers open to exploitation. Some sponsors
will even withhold their passports, preventing them from returning home.
“The Kafala doesn’t prescribe that those should be treated poorly, but it allows it
through this system of sponsorship.”
“However - in Qatar at least - Kafala is no more. In 2020, the Qatari government introduced
a law saying workers no longer needed to have their employer’s permission to change jobs.
It’s one of a series of reforms to employment law that Qatar has introduced in recent years,
while the world has been watching.”
Qatar has, for example, just introduced a minimum monthly wage for all workers, regardless
of nationality (QAR1,000, $275). Employers now also have to provide food and board, or
give workers extra to pay for their own (QAR800, $220).
Something FIFA has been keen to flag up.
"When it comes to the situation in Qatar in particular, I think we need to be fair there
as well and admit that a lot of progress has happened. A lot of progress in the conditions
of the workers.”
“We have seen Qatar make some important reforms to the labour system in recent years,
but the implementation of these reforms means that the reality on the ground for many many
migrant workers remains incredibly harsh.”
“When you look to work conditions in Bangladesh, in India. People are really looking for work.
Young people are looking for adventures as well. So this is pretty good ground to make
contracts which are not really fair or really decent.”
“So has the end of Kafala meant the end of mistreatment of migrant workers in Qatar?
Well it’s clear that some are still having a tough time.”
Mohammed Akash is 25 years old and from Bangladesh. At the end of 2019 he travelled to Qatar,
with a promise of work.
“First I got the visa. But the broker came back to Bangladesh just two days before I
flew to Qatar. He assured me that he had people over there who would take care of me. But
once I was there, it was getting difficult to get any work as I did not have any ID or
work permit for 6-7 months. Meanwhile I worked as a mason.”
“Akash needed work. He says he paid the equivalent of over $7,500 to get to Qatar
- money he had to borrow from his family. He says his dad is an autorickshaw driver,
and could barely afford it.”
“The broker told me that he will come after one month. But because of Covid situation
he could not travel. He is still in Bangladesh. I was also stuck. I stayed with 7 other workers.
They were all masons. They took me to work with them as I had no ID. In
a week, I could work only 3 days. With the money I barely could pay my food and room
rent.“
“Eventually he did find legitimate work… but not for long.”
“Then I got the motorbike license and started working as delivery man for a company. Within
25 days, I had that accident. My leg was broken. After 15 days I came back.”
“Unable to work, Akash returned to Bangladesh at the end of 2020, his leg snapped in two.
But some alarming figures suggest that - as a migrant worker in Qatar - it could have
been much worse.”
One of the major controversies surrounding Qatar’s use of migrants to build the world
cup has been the number of deaths. Earlier this year, the Guardian calculated the number
of fatalities among migrant workers in Qatar as over 6,500 since it was awarded the tournament
in 2010.
“The data came from just a handful of the countries of origin for Qatar’s migrant
workforce - and didn’t include some major contributing nations like Kenya and the Philippines.
We don’t know precisely what jobs those people were doing when they died, but it’s
likely a lot of them would not have been in Qatar had it not won the right to host the
World Cup.”
The Qatari didn't respond to my request for an interview, but it's previously said: “Unfortunately,
of the millions of residents from India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Nepal who have lived
in Qatar from 2011 to 2019, a very small percentage have sadly passed away. Although each loss
of life is upsetting, the mortality rate among these communities is within the expected range
for the size and demographics of the population.”
37 deaths have been reported among migrant workers, working on Qatar’s new stadiums
for the World Cup. Not all of them can be explained by demographics.
“From the 37 on the stadiums, 34 are claimed to be non work-related. So these are made
up of heart attacks, illness, and 10 of those 34 are suicide. 10 suicide.”
“FIFA says the frequency of deaths of World Cup construction sites are lower than other
comparable-sized building projects. If that’s true - and it’s hard to find evidence that
it is - does that make it okay?”
“In the construction industry it has been for years or for decades that we have tried
to say “well this proportion of fatalities is just normal”. We have to teach a lot
and to tell the public that it’s not normal. If you compare the construction industry to
the chemical industry, the chemical industry says, well, the aim, the goal is zero fatalities.”
The Qatari government says “Since 2010, there has been a consistent decline in the
mortality rate as a result of the health and safety reforms we have introduced. We expect
this downward trend to continue in the future.”
“But the deaths combined with the treatment of workers since 2010 have been enough to
make some stake-holders say they want nothing to do with Qatar’s World Cup.”
Earlier this year, I reported for DW on one supplier of turf to past world cups deciding
not to bid this time round, because of the conditions they'd seen in Qatar.
Players too have been taking a stand, with both the German and Norwegian national teams
openly protesting the situation in Qatar.
“There are even calls for an all-round boycott of World Cup 2022. These calls are loudest
in Norway, where there’s a campaign to urge to football association not to send a team,
if they qualify.”
“We as supporters are now working actively to encourage local clubs to take a stand in
the matter and participate in this democratic decision.” “FIFA should take a much more
clear responsibility ... at least, people shouldn’t die as a direct consequence of
us playing football.”
FIFA disagrees that it’s dropped the ball on human rights.
“We put it as a condition in our bidding processes for all our competitions and wherever
we go around the world we are of course highlighting the need for protecting human rights.”
“Calls for a boycott of the Qatar World Cup have not spread much beyond northern Europe
- and are unlikely to result in the tournament being moved. Either way, not everyone is convinced
that’s the right way to bring about change.
“I think what needs to happen is a concerted media campaign to ensure that the lives of
these people aren’t forgotten during the world cup. That actually they are remembered
though that world cup. And then a campaign that ensures that this never happens again.”
“And as for workers rights - campaigners admit that Qatar has made moves in the right
direction, but there’s still a way to go.”
“While there has been progress, we continue to call on Qatar and FIFA, which also has
responsibilities under international standards, to push that these reforms are implemented,
are enforced, and really that the World Cup leaves the positive legacy that these bodies
say they want it to.”
Every year, Qatar holds a football tournament for its army of labourers from overseas. As
it prepares for the ultimate soccer spectacle at the end of 2022 the world is watching closely.
The treatment of migrant workers in Qatar could still tarnish the name of the beautiful
game.
“This has been DW Business Beyond. If you've enjoyed it please do hit like and subscribe
to our channel. Until next time, take care.”