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Fifa’s 2022 World Cup stadiums are being built on forced labour and unethical practices, says Amnesty International.
The human rights organisation claims that Fifa, who have awarded Qatar the 2022 Fifa World Cup, are turning a blind eye to the systematic abuse of migrants working on the Khalifa International Stadium in Doha.
Amnesty International secretary-general Salil Shetty said: “Despite five years of promises, Fifa has failed almost completely to stop the World Cup being built on human rights abuses.”
Amnesty International’s report, titled “The ugly side of the beautiful game: Labour exploitation on a Qatar 2022 World Cup venue” is a scathing indictment of Fifa’s handling of the situation.
Only six of the 234 men interviewed for the latest report by Amnesty said they were paid the wage promised to them prior to entering Qatar for employment. Squalid accommodation, passport confiscation and employer intimidation are just some of the abuses reported by workers.
“The abuse of migrant workers is a stain on the conscience of world football. For players and fans, a World Cup stadium is a place of dreams. For some of the workers who spoke to us, it can feel like a living nightmare,” said Shetty.
Fifa, which is trying to recover from one of the worst sporting scandals in history, stated in a press release that “since 2011, Fifa has met with key stakeholders, including Amnesty International, to discuss the best way forward to achieve consistent and sustained implementation of fair working conditions on Fifa World Cup construction sites as quickly as possible.
This is an ongoing process. Challenges remain, but Fifa is confident that the structures and processes set up so far by the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, which is the entity responsible for the delivery of Fifa World Cup infrastructure, provide a good basis to monitor the labour rights of migrant workers.”
The report’s editor, Mustafa Qadri, told Goal that Fifa, as well as Qatar’s Supreme Committee, which is planning the country’s World Cup, need to urgently step in to take action against migrant abuse.
“We’ve said [it] to the Supreme Committee and to the Qatari authorities, and we’ve been updating Fifa regularly, both directly and through our public outputs, that it’s a problem. And yet nothing is really being done,” said Qadri.
In response to the report, the Supreme Committee said that “the tone of Amnesty International’s latest assertions paint a misleading picture and do nothing to contribute to our efforts”.
“Amnesty International’s investigation was limited to just four companies out of more than 40 currently engaged on the Khalifa International Stadium. We wholly reject any notion that Qatar is unfit to host the World Cup.”
Amnesty International expects the abuse of migrant workers to increase dramatically, as the number of people working on World Cup sites is set to surge to about 36 000 in the next two years.
Shetty went on to say that “if Fifa’s new leadership is serious about turning a page, it cannot allow its showcase global event to take place in stadiums built on the abuse of migrant workers”.
