Qatar has been criticized primarily for its treatment of guest workers. Massive human rights violations were documented during the construction of the stadiums and other infrastructure for the World Cup. FIFA and Qatar have repeatedly promised improvements and referred to reforms, but these have hardly been implemented to date.
Renuka Chaudhary has lost her husband Tej Tharu. The man from Nepal died as a guest worker in Qatar working on the Al Janoub Stadium. “My husband’s death has caused me and my daughter untold sorrow,” says Chaudhary. “Those responsible for the World Cup live in their own world. They don’t give a damn about us. Nobody in Qatar can empathize with me.”
In the Sport-inside film “The Dead” from the documentary series “Qatar – World Cup of Shame”, guest workers, relatives and human rights organizations talk about how Qatar deals with migrant workers. “No one in charge informed us about Tej Tharu’s death,” criticizes Tharu’s wife.
Renuka Chaudhary, widow of a guest worker from Nepal who died in Qatar
“How do you treat my husband? You just don’t care”
The Qatar World Cup organizing committee claims the opposite: the relatives were informed immediately. Chaudhary received a compensation payment equivalent to 71,000 euros. But her life has changed since the death of her husband. “Qatar is the richest country in the world. And how do they treat workers like my husband? They just don’t care.”
Tharu fell to his death at Al-Janoub Stadium. Seven games will take place here, including a round of 16 game. Three of Tej Tharu’s colleagues also died while working at Al-Janoub Stadium. But unlike him, they died in their sleep. Officially of sudden cardiac death. There was never an autopsy.
Al Janoub Stadium in Qatar – this is where Tej Tharu died
Overall, according to Amnesty International, the rate of unexplained deaths could be up to 70 percent. Death certificates for migrant workers are said to have been routinely issued without proper investigations into the causes of death. Instead, the deaths would be attributed to “natural causes” or vaguely defined “heart defects.”
| Stadion | capacity |
|---|---|
| Lusail Iconic Stadium | 86,250 |
| Al Bayt Stadium | 60,000 |
| Education City Stadium | 45,350 |
| Ahmed bin Ali Stadium | 44,740 |
| Khalifa International Stadium | 40,000 |
| Al Janoub Stadium | 40,000 |
| Stage 974 | 40,000 |
| Al Thumama Stadium | 40,000 |
How many victims are there? Controversy over the numbers
In Qatar, there is still a great lack of transparency in the way the Qatari government deals with death tolls. According to statistics from Qatar, more than 15,000 non-Qatar nationals have died since the 2010 World Cup was awarded. How many victims are related to World Cup projects is not made public. According to FIFA, only three workers died explicitly as a result of accidents at work during stadium construction.
There are a total of eight stadiums at the World Cup, six of which have been completely rebuilt and two have been renovated or rebuilt. The number of stadiums was initially planned to be even larger at twelve, but was later reduced to eight.
Human Rights Watch: “FIFA didn’t want to hear warnings”
Minky Worden, who oversees work on sport and human rights at human rights organization Human Rights Watch, has criticized FIFA. “Initially, FIFA just didn’t respond to our attempts to get in touch. There was no one at FIFA that we could turn to,” Worden said. “FIFA was completely disinterested and denied any responsibility for human rights.”
FIFA under President Gianni Infantino and Qatar repeatedly point to improvements and reforms. There is talk of a minimum wage, the possibility of changing employers, or the abolition of the kafala system. In the kafala system, the employer can exercise extremely strong control over the migrant workers. However, human rights organizations repeatedly criticize the fact that some of these reforms only exist on paper and are rarely or not at all implemented in practice.
“Every year the Qatari government promised to abolish the kafala system and every year we had to remind them that it still exists,” says Worden. “Qatar cannot always take credit for removing an abusive system when it actually continues to exist. All of these practices continued and continue long after the Labor Ministry committed to abolishing the kafala system.”
Doubts about the role of the international labor organization
In the course of the preparations for the World Cup, there were reports of further violations. Numerous guest workers reported to the WDR in 2019 that they had not been paid wages for up to eight months. FIFA then had to admit that international labor standards had also been violated on World Cup construction sites. Qatar’s World Cup Organizing Committee, meanwhile, has consistently claimed it has “worked tirelessly to protect the health, safety and dignity of all workers.”
Great hopes were placed in the ILO. The International Labor Organization of the United Nations, based in Geneva, is actually supposed to protect workers worldwide from exploitation. A cooperation with Qatar has existed since 2018, 25 million US dollars flow per year. “With the entry of the ILO, all the talk about kafala reforms was suddenly taken seriously,” says Nicholas McGeehan of the human rights organization FairSquare. “But then it became clear that the ILO did not demand reforms as a condition for cooperation.” There are allegations that Qatar was able to influence personnel decisions at the ILO.
However, the ILO was used as a key witness by FIFA and Qatar when it came to pointing out improvements and reforms. “Qatar has abolished the kafala system. It’s a milestone. It’s a game changer. And I’m not saying that. That’s what the ILO says,” announced FIFA President Infantino at the FIFA Congress 2020.
Four-part documentary series in the WDR background magazine “Sport inside”
Thousands of dead guest workers, opaque procurement procedures, boycott discussions: the soccer World Cup in Qatar is one of the most controversial sporting events of our time. The WDR investigative format “Sport inside” has been researching the background of this World Cup since 2010. The four-part documentary series “Qatar – World Cup of Shame” and the podcast “The World Cup Slaves – Qatar and the History of Guest Workers” show the results of this long-term research. The series will be available from October 7th in the ARD Mediathek and the podcast from November 4th in the ARD Audiothek.
The broadcast dates on WDR television:
- Part 1: The award – 08.10.2022, 1:55 p.m
- Part 2: The Dead – 10/15/2022, 1:30 p.m
- Part 3: The Plan – 10/22/2022, 1:55 p.m
- Part 4: The bill – 10/29/2022, 1:55 p.m