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The International Trade Union Congress has claimed that Qatar’s pursuit to build stadiums for the 2022 FIFA World Cup well in advance is likely to cost 4,000 migrant workers’ lives.
The group scrutinised builders’ deaths in Qatar in the last two years and revealed that at least half a million extra workers from countries like Nepal, India and Sri Lanka were expected to complete stadiums, hotels and infrastructure in time for the World Cup kick off. The annual death count among those working on building sites could rise to 600 a year, almost a dozen a week unless the Doha government takes urgent measures to safeguard their interests.
The investigation from ITUC revealed that the primary reason for the low mortality rates of Nepalese and Indian-origin workers, who have been an intrinsic part of the whirlwind constructions of stadiums, are largely due to heart failures. Harsh and dangerous conditions at work and cramped and dirty living quarters are to be blamed for their demise.
Workers have been forced to work at 50C heat. Payments were withheld and their passports have also been confiscated to prevent these labourers from fleeing the country before their contractual obligation is fulfilled.
The Indian ambassador in Qatar had mentioned that 82 Indian workers died in the first five months of this year and 1,460 complained to the embassy about labour conditions. More than 700 Indian workers have died in Qatar between 2010 and 2012.
Sharan Burrow, the general secretary of the Brussels-based organisation, said: “Nothing of any substance is being done by the Qatar authorities on this issue.
“The evidence-based assessment of the mortality rate of migrant workers in Qatar shows that at least one worker on average per day is dying. In the absence of real measures to tackle that and an increase in 50% of the migrant workforce, there will be a concominant increase in deaths.
“We are absolutely convinced they are dying because of conditions of work and life. Everything the Guardian has found out accords with the information we have gathered from visits to Qatar and Nepal. There are harrowing testimonies from the workers in the system there. The 2022 World Cup is a very high profile event and should be implemented with the very highest standards and that is clearly not the case.”
Prof S Irudaya Rajan, chairman of the research unit on international migration at the centre for development studies in Kerala, India, said: “They need people from India and Nepal to give their hard work and they need better treatment because they are the ones building their whole economy.
“The Qataris have made them invisible in their economy but they have to make them visible. In the 21st century, labour should be treated equally to capital.”
Prof Rajan was of the view that Indian workers were better treated in comparison to others due to the relatively long history of the country sending workers to the Gulf. It meant support networks are already in place for the Indians.
