- The treatment of migrant workers in Qatar, where there are 2.9 million people and the bulk of them are foreigners, has drawn harsh criticism from human rights organizations.
- Despite labor reforms in 2014, Amnesty’s 48-page Reality Check 2021 report stated that widespread practices like withholding wages and charging employees to change jobs were still prevalent.
- The 2022 World Cup host country’s government denied claims in the report that thousands of migrant workers were being trapped and exploited, saying instead that Qatar’s labor system was still under development.
How many migrant workers have died in Qatar?
- According to calculations made by the British newspaper The Guardian using official documents, at least 6,500 migrant workers, many of whom were engaged in World Cup-related projects, have passed away in Qatar since it was awarded the right to host the tournament.
- In response, Qatar stated that every life lost was a tragedy and that the number of deaths was commensurate to the size of the migrant population, which included many non-manual workers.
- The head of the International Labour Organization (ILO) office in Qatar, Max Tunon, issued a warning that statistics on worker fatalities in Qatar are regularly provided without the required context.
- Without distinguishing between migrant workers and the general migrant population, let alone fatalities brought on by occupational injuries, the number includes all deaths in the migrant population.
- Three fatal workplace accidents and 34 unrelated deaths among workers at World Cup 2022 sites, according to the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC), the Qatari World Cup organizers.
News Mania Desk
