The 2022 World Cup in Qatar and the inhuman conditions experienced by its workers

A few months before the opening whistle of the opening match of the 2022 Qatar World Cup, to be played on November 21 between the local team and Ecuador, the migrant workers who built the stadiums say they continue to live in precarious conditions, paying illegal fees to maintain their jobs and unable to change jobs without the consent of their employer, according to testimonies collected by The Guardian.

According to a Bangladeshi worker identified as Kabir, at the end of the day they are transported to the dormitories provided by his employer, the Al Sulaiteen Agricultural and Industrial Complex, located in the middle of a farm and surrounded by greenhouses. Many of them – reports the British media – are small, dirty and lack windows, making the migrants’ stay «miserable».

Despite the fact that the organizing committee of the tournament announced in 2017 a plan to prevent employers from demanding a ‘hiring fee’, and return them if they had been paid, this practice continues to be daily, reported the Bangladeshi, Indian and Nepalese workers interviewed. .

«I paid $3,000 [to secure my job]», said Kabir. «Some pay a little more, some a little less, but everyone pays», he added.

Conditions of «serious labor exploitation» in Qatar

Similarly, one of the Indian migrants reported receiving a monthly salary of about $256, which is equivalent to just over a dollar an hour. After paying recruitment fees and living expenses, he claims he is able to send home just over $182 to support his wife and his four children.

This situation has drawn the attention of international human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, Migrant Rights and Human Rights Watch, which last May were part of a coalition that urged FIFA to pay some 440 million dollars in compensation. to migrant workers from Qatar who are victims of alleged violations of their human and labor rights.

Similarly, after at least 60 migrants were detained in Doha last August, several of whom were deported, for demonstrating and demanding payment of their back wages, the workers’ rights group Equidem denounced in a report that employees have been victims of «serious labor exploitation» and have suffered from intensive surveillance by their employers.

The alleged continuous abuses and the extremely poor living conditions of migrants in Qatar are rarely denounced by those affected, mainly – the organizations agree – because the victims fear reprisals that they could suffer for defending their rights and interests, which range from dismissal to deportation.