2023-12-13 20:22:46
WORLD – One year after the conclusion of the Football World Cup, hundreds of thousands of workers, victims of abuse on stadium construction sites, remain deprived of access to compensation. Deafening silence from FIFA on this issue.
A year ago, the world of football turned for the first time to Qatar, host of a World Cup which definitively propelled Leo Messi into the history of the game, the Argentine champion having been the architect of the Albiceleste’s third victory in the competition. Beyond football, Qatar was the most controversial host in the modern history of the tournament (ahead of… Argentina under the Videla junta, in 1978), plagued by constant criticism over the lack of respect human rights of the country. A year later, there is nothing new under the scorching sun of the Persian Gulf emirate.
The World Cup brought no social progress to Qatar. On the one hand, the families of workers killed during the construction of the stadiums, many from Asian countries, have still not received fair compensation. On the other hand, the working conditions of foreign employees who remained in the country have hardly improved.
Difficulties in establishing an accurate death toll
According to a survey by the British daily The Guardian, the construction of Qatari stadiums led to the deaths of more than 6,500 workers from Bangladesh, Nepal, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Qatar only recognizes the deaths of around 500 people. An Amnesty International report highlights the continuing difficulty in establishing an accurate death toll, while compensation for the abuses suffered has still not been given to the many victims’ families.
Indeed, from the start of the tournament, Amnesty International noted that hotel employees, for example, were not allowed to take days off. Remember that Qatar maintains a minimum wage of 242 euros, lower than that of less wealthy countries such as Belize, Turkmenistan and El Salvador. The International Labor Organization also denounced the fact that many workers take months to receive their salaries.
Labor abuses continue
Currently, foreign workers are allowed to leave Qatar, but they have seen little improvement in their conditions in the country. Measures have only been implemented to prevent the impact of the extreme heat in the country, for example by preventing people from working at certain hours, but other abuses are being noted.
In theory, workers are free to change jobs, but in practice they must always obtain permission from their employer to leave. Still according to Amnesty International, government officials continue to suggest that workers seek this authorization. According to the Qatari government’s own figures, the executive refused a third of job change requests. Amnesty has found that employers continue to file complaints for job abandonment or threaten to revoke workers’ residence permits in order to keep them in their company, even against their will.
A month after the end of the tournament, two Pakistanis and an Indian were arrested for participating in protests demanding improved working conditions. In April, they were sentenced to six months in prison and fined nearly $3,000.
FIFA radio silence
World football’s governing body recorded record revenues of more than $7 billion during the last World Cup. FIFA has also committed to setting up a reparations fund accompanied by a report, which has not yet been submitted, in order to guarantee compensation in line with its human rights policy. Article 3 of FIFA’s statutes announces that the association “is firmly committed to respecting human rights recognized by the international community and strives to ensure respect for these rights.”
An effort that is making little, if any, progress. And the numerous statements by FIFA President Gianni Infantino, defending the Qatari regime, still resonate…
Usually, FIFA dedicates a legacy fund to the host countries. In the present case, FIFA itself recognized that, given Qatar’s solvency conditions, this fund would have other objectives. According to its website, this is money that “FIFA will distribute to finance the education of children, particularly girls and women in developing countries, with the aim of giving them the opportunity to succeed in life”. This, although FIFA has indicated that it will evaluate the tournament’s human rights legacy, neither the international association nor Qatar have, until now, presented an effective and accessible program allowing workers to receive the compensation due to them.
A new concern is emerging regarding human rights and the world of football. For the moment, Saudi Arabia is the only candidate country to host the 2034 World Cup. And reports on freedom and democracy rank this country among those where citizens enjoy the least freedoms…
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