Accused of “forced labor” and of “trafficking in human beings”, the French construction group Vinci announced Monday in a press release the summons by French justice, Wednesday, of its subsidiary Vinci Constructions Grands Projets “with a view to a possible indictment”as part of an investigation into working conditions on building sites in Qatar.
The newspaper Le Parisien had reported on Sunday that such a summons would take place on Wednesday by an examining magistrate from Nanterre.
The group writes to regret that “its subsidiary is the subject of an indictment”anticipating a decision that belongs to the judge on Wednesday.
The French company says it refute the accusations, in particular of “forced labor” and of “trafficking in human beings”, two weeks before the opening of the Mondial-2022.
The investigation was opened in November 2019, after complaints from the Sherpa and Committee against Modern Slavery (CCEM) associations, as well as from seven former Indian and Nepalese employees of these sites.
The plaintiffs accuse Vinci, Vinci Construction Grands Projets (VCGP), its Qatari subsidiary Diar Vinci Construction (QDVC) and their representatives, of “reduction in servitude, trafficking in human beings, work incompatible with human dignity, deliberate endangerment, involuntary injuries and concealment” notably, according to the complaint.
Vinci “has continued to vigorously refute the allegations made against him concerning construction sites in Qatar carried out by the company QDVC” et “will continue to collaborate with justice”explains the group on Monday in its press release.
According to the NGO Sherpa, the immigrant employees of Vinci who work on the sites of the World Cup work, passport confiscated, between 66 and 77 hours a week. And they would be crammed into cramped rooms with insufficient sanitary facilities, receiving remuneration unrelated to the work provided, threatened with dismissal or dismissal in their country in the event of claims.
“None of the projects awarded to QDVC are related to the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar” and they were “awarded (…) before the organization of this competition was awarded” to this wealthy Gulf emirate, says Vinci. He recalls that the projects have focused “basically on transport infrastructure”.
“We tried in vain to convince the magistrate that it was not particularly appropriate after seven and a half years of investigation to consider an indictment in the opening fortnight of the Football World Cup”reacted on Monday the lawyer of Vinci Jean-Pierre Versini-Campinchi, who fears “a media uproar”.
“If an indictment were pronounced against Vinci, this would confirm that multinationals are finding it increasingly difficult to hide behind value chains, the fact that it would be too complicated to act, and would remind us that legally, voluntary measures of improvement do not make it possible to escape the risk of penal sanction in the event of suspicion of infringement”retains for its part the NGO Sherpa, at the origin of the complaint with civil action.