The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) has predicted that Qatar’s construction boom ahead of the 2022 World Cup could cost the lives of at least 4,000 migrant workers.
The group said that at least half a million extra workers from countries including Nepal, India and Sri Lanka will be brought in to complete stadiums, hotels and infrastructure in time for the World Cup kickoff, and has said almost a dozen people could die every week unless the Doha government makes considerable reforms.
The ITUC has based this estimate on current mortality figures for Nepalese and Indian workers who form the bulk of Qatar’s 1.2 million-strong migrant workforce, the large majority of whom are builders.
It is believed that harsh and dangerous conditions at work and squalid living quarters contribute to this high mortality rate.
The warning came after an investigation revealed that 44 Nepalese workers died from 4 June to 8 August this year, about half from heart failure or workplace accidents.
The investigation found sickness is endemic among workers living in overcrowded and insanitary conditions, and workers described being forced to work in 50C heat without drinking water. Thirty Nepalese construction workers escaped this ordeal and took refuge in their embassy before leaving the country after, they claimed, they received no pay for work done.
The Indian ambassador in Qatar confirmed that 82 Indian workers died in the first five months of this year and 1,460 complained about working and living conditions.
More than 700 Indian workers died in Qatar between 2010 and 2012.
“Nothing of any substance is being done by the Qatar authorities on this issue,” said Sharan Burrow, the general secretary of the Brussels-based ITUC that has met the Qatari labour minister in Geneva and officials at the Qatar 2022 supreme committee, which is preparing the country for the World Cup.
It is estimated that Qatar, the world’s richest country by income per capita, is spending the equivalent of nearly $100bn on building transport infrastructure, hotels, stadiums and other facilities ahead of the World Cup.
The ITUC has estimated that as many as 1 million additional people, on top of the existing labour force, will be needed to get the country ready for the world’s biggest sporting event.
“Fifa needs to send a very strong and clear message to Qatar that it will not allow the World Cup to be delivered on the back of a system of modern slavery that is the reality for hundreds of thousands of migrant workers there today,” said Burrow.
