Amnesty International is calling on FIFA to allocate at least $440 million, more than 417 million euros, to a compensation program for hundreds of thousands of migrant workers who were exploited in the run-up to the World Cup in Qatar. The human rights organization also hopes that the world football association will prevent harrowing situations such as in recent years in the emirate on the way to the next global final rounds.
The amount of 440 million dollars is equal to the total prize money for the 32 countries participating in the World Cup in Qatar. Amnesty expects more money to be needed to fully compensate all victims. After consultation with trade unions, civil society organizations and the international labor organization ILO, it should become clear how much money is actually needed. According to the human rights organization, migrant workers must be compensated for unpaid wages and high recruitment costs. Many workers injured while working for the World Cup were said to have received insufficient financial assistance. Relatives of many deceased migrants are also still waiting for compensation.
“Given the history of human rights violations in the country, FIFA knew the risks to workers when the football federation awarded the tournament to Qatar, otherwise it should have known,” said Amnesty’s Secretary-General Agnès Callamard. “Despite the evaluation of the Qatari bid, there was no mention of workers or human rights and no conditions were imposed on workers’ protection. FIFA has since done far too little to prevent or mitigate those risks. ”
Amnesty calls on football associations, including the KNVB, to support the call for the compensation program. According to the human rights organization, FIFA will earn more than 5.6 billion euros from the World Cup in Qatar. Amnesty knows that Qatar has introduced laws in recent years to better protect migrant workers, but also emphasizes that these are insufficiently enforced. “For years, the suffering of those who made this World Cup possible has been swept under the rug. It is time FIFA and Qatar partnered up on a comprehensive workers-centred recovery program to ensure no damage goes unnoticed.” says Callamard.