The first World Cup soccer tournament to be held in the Middle East broke many records, one of which was that the host country had the smallest population ever. With a population of about 2.9 million, Qatar is one of the richest countries in the world, and as a result, many of the grassroots laborers have had to be brought in from outside the country. According to statistics, only 20% of Kadazans are born and raised in Kadah, while migrant workers account for about 80% of the population. Organizing the World Cup is a huge project that depends on more foreign migrant workers, and the announcement of hosting the World Cup has attracted even more migrant workers.
In 2022, foreign workers and foreigners will make up 84% of the population of Cada, with around 2 million foreigners attracted by the World Cup job opportunities. However, in recent years it has been repeatedly reported in the media that these millions of migrant workers have not been treated fairly, not only do they have to pay a huge brokerage fee upfront, but they also do not receive the salary they were promised when they arrived in Cada, and that the lack of attention from the FIFA has also contributed to the problem of migrant workers.
This situation has caused some of the participating countries to take offense, such as Denmark, whose jersey theme is set to ? Mourning? This article explores the dilemma of these migrant workers and looks at the response of the FIFA and the Qatar organizers.
The upcoming Katha World Cup soccer match on November 20 is bound to attract the attention of fans from all over the world. However, behind the glamor and glitz of the tournament is the sad history of migrant workers in the 21st century. According to
The Guardian (U.K. newspaper)
reports that since Kada won the current
World Cup
More than 6,500 foreign workers, mostly from poorer regions of South Asia, have died since the hosting of the World Trade Organization (WTO) (see table 1).
Although the data is not disaggregated by occupation or place of work, most of the country's foreign labor migration to Qatar was due to the job opportunities that came with the hosting of the World Football Championships, and many of the workers who died were mostly responsible for
World Cup
infrastructure projects, and therefore not counted as directly related to the construction of World Cup venues.
The hot climate (up to 50 degrees Celsius) and the poor quality of life of migrant workers may be one of the causes of their deaths, but migrant workers in such a high-risk environment are vulnerable to labor-management power imbalances, as workers cannot form unions or go on strikes, and employers are not required to pay compensation to their families under Kadar's labor laws when their deaths are attributed to natural causes.
Table 1 Nationality distribution of deaths of migrant workers from South Asia in Qatar, 2011-2020
nations
India
Nepali
Bengal
Pakistan
(formerly) Ceylon
number of people
Source: Ng Chun Chung (Nov 19, 2022) The Hell of Foreign Workers Behind the World Cup in Qatar: The Tip of the Labor Rights Iceberg?
Most of the workers recruited for the construction of the stadium came from poor countries in West Africa and South Asia, and local agents often lured local laborers to work in Qatar by saying that Qatar is a rich country, or by offering them high salaries. In a 2016 report, the BBC reported that FIFA had failed to protect the rights of migrant workers and accused stadium construction of forced labor.
In addition to the unreasonable referral system mentioned above, migrant workers may have already been subjected to job and salary fraud when they agreed to go to Kadah, which means that migrant workers were sold to Kadah for hard labor under the delusion of the job content and salary. It was reported that some workers were even paid only one half of what they had been promised, and that when they accepted these inequalities, they had no way of redressing their grievances, as the organizers blocked all avenues of redress and even denied the migrant workers the right to form a trade union, resulting in an alarming disparity between the position of employers and employees.
migrant workers and even the opportunity to escape, those holding tourist visas migrant workers, can not look for other jobs, there is no money to buy air tickets to their hometowns, and even some migrant workers passport will be seized as a threat, coupled with the original choice of this job is mostly in the hometowns have not been able to survive, the money earned must be fully sent home, a migrant worker in an interview, said that they have not been eight months to eat properly! A migrant worker said in an interview, he has been eight months without a good meal, this job is no fairness to them, but they are porridge life-saving straw.
After the controversy over migrant workers at the Qatar World Cup, Amnesty International began to speak out on behalf of these migrant workers in 2016, highlighting this regret with the Qatar World Cup of Shame, and has continued to speak out on behalf of these migrant workers since then. Including early last year, Amnesty International sent an open letter to FIFA, recognizing FIFA's efforts to promote human rights globally, in particular through the adoption of a human rights policy in 2017, which regulates the compliance of relevant countries with international human rights standards, and calling on the Qatar government to take swift and clear action on migrants' rights.
