Six days from Qatar World Cup: Where did the workers sleep, how many have died at their workplace?

Qatar is put under intensive observation on how it treats these workers there, writes BBC, forward Periscope.

How many foreign workers have worked on World Cup projects?

Qatar has built seven stadiums for the World Cup finals, as well as a new airport, a subway system, a series of roads and about 100 new hotels.

A whole town is built around the stadium to host the final match.

Qatar government says Thirty grand. Foreign workers were employed only to build stadiums. Most come from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and the Philippines.

How many foreign workers died in Qatar?

In February 2021, “The Guardian” said 6,500 immigrant workers from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka had died in Qatar since the country gained the right to hold the World Cup.

The number is based on figures provided by the embassies of countries in Qatar.

However, Qatar's government has said the total is deceptive, because not all the recorded deaths were of people working on projects related to the World Cup.

He said that many who died had worked in Qatar for several years and could have died of old age or other natural causes.

The government said its accident data showed that between 2014 and 2020, there were 37 deaths among the workers at the World Cup stadium construction sites, only three of which were “related to work”.

However, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) says it is a underestimation. Qatar does not count deaths from heart attacks and respiratory failure as related to work, even though these are common symptoms of heat shock caused by hard work at very high temperatures.

It has compiled its figures for World Cup-related incidents gathered by government-run hospitals and ambulance services in Qatar.

He says 50 foreign workers died, and more than 500 were seriously injured in 2021, while another 37,600 suffered mild to medium injuries.

BBC Arabic has also collected evidence suggesting the Qatar government has reported fewer deaths among foreign workers.

How are foreign workers treated?

Since Qatar won the right to organise the 2010 World Cup, human rights groups have criticised treatment of foreign workers.

In 2016, Amnesty International He accused Qatari companies of using forced labour.

He said many workers lived in poor housing, were forced to pay large recruiting fees, and their salaries were banned and passports confiscated.

Qatar Workplace Home

Since 2017, the government has imposed measures to protect foreign workers from working in very hot weather, limit their work schedules, and improve conditions in labor camps.

However, in a 2021 report, the campaign group Human Rights Watch said foreign workers were still suffering from “punitive and illegal wage lines” and faced “month wages unpaid for long exhausting hours of work”.

Qatar companies used a system called “kafama”, under which they sponsored foreign workers to get to the country, but then prevented them from leaving.

Under pressure from such groups as ILOThe Qatar government removed this practice, but Amnesty International Says companies still pressure workers to stop them from changing employers.

What did Qatar's government say about foreign workers' rights?

Working in cooperation with ILOThe Qatar government has launched a series of reforms.

These include a budget protection scheme designed to ensure employers pay their staff on time.

A government spokesman told BBC that its reforms are improving the working conditions of most foreign workers in Qatar.

There has been an important progress in implementing reforms”.

“The number of companies that break the rules will continue to fall with the setting of”He said it.

What did the World Cup teams say?

This issue will likely remain the focus of attention during the finals.

FIFA has written to 32 competing teams telling them that “tan will focus on football”. FIFA further said that sports should not be dragged “into “betates” ideological or political, or “providing moral lessons”.

But in response, ten European football associations including those of England and Wales said that “human rights are universal and apply everywhere”.

The Australian football team published a video criticising Qatar for mistreating immigrant workers.

Danish players will wear a completely black lantern to protest against the history of human rights in Qatar./Periscopi/