Amnesty International, a coalition of human rights organizations, and groups of football fans have issued an open letter calling on the international football organization FIFA to set up a recovery program. That should provide some form of compensation for the exploitation of workers during the preparations for this year’s FIFA World Cup in Qatar. In addition, the program must also ensure that the abuse does not repeat itself in the future.
According to Amnesty, the recovery program should comprise at least $440 million (about 418 million euros), which is in line with the amount FIFA provides as prize money for the participating countries. According to the organization, that is only a fraction of the profit that FIFA will make with the football tournament. “The recovery fund that Amnesty and others are asking for is fully justified given the scale of the exploitation. It represents only a small fraction of the $6 billion FIFA will earn from the tournament,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s secretary general. .
“Given the history of human rights violations in the country, FIFA was aware, or should have been, aware of the risks to workers when awarding the tournament to Qatar. Despite this, in assessing Qatar’s bid, no no mention was made of workers or human rights and no conditions were imposed on workers’ protection. FIFA has since then done far too little to prevent or mitigate those risks,” explains Callamard. “Under international law and under FIFA’s own rules, both Qatar and FIFA have obligations and responsibilities to prevent human rights violations and to compensate victims.”
Warranties
Outside the 2022 World Cup, FIFA must also guarantee that human rights violations by migrant workers do not repeat, according to Amnesty. The football organization must draw up clear action plans to prevent abuse and include the risks to human rights in their decision when awarding future tournaments.
Responding to Amnesty’s report, FIFA says it is committed to thorough investigations to protect workers as they prepare for the World Cup. They also highlight the considerations they made when selecting Qatar as their host country. The football organization says it has played a major role in labor law reforms in Qatar by implementing its Sustainability Strategy.
recovery program
The idea of a recovery program is being explored by the organization. FIFA is always looking for ways to properly resolve the issues associated with our events, including when it comes to pre-event issues.
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