6,750 Asian migrant workers reported dead amid prep for 2022 Qatar World Cup: Report

Ever since Qatar won the rights to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup back in 2010, the 22nd edition of the quadrennial football championship has come under intense scrutiny and has been marred with controversies. Right from reports of corruption in bidding and acquiring the rights to allegations of human rights abuses and Qatar's diplomatic crisis, the hosting rights won by the middle-eastern country have sparked a debates frequently. Now, a report by British news media has claimed that nearly 7,000 migrant workers from Asian countries have died in the last decade amid preparation for the 2022 Qatar World Cup due to unknown reasons. 

In an investigative report by Britain's The Guardian, it has been claimed that for the past 10 years, since Qatar won rights for the 2022 World Cup, over 6,750 migrant workers from five South Asian countries - India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka - have died in Qatar. Amongst these 5 countries, the number of migrant workers from India stands the highest at 2,711. Dissecting the number further, the findings have claimed that on average nearly 12 migrant workers from the aforementioned countries have died every week since December 2010 when Qatar won the rights to host the 2022 World Cup. The report doesn't necessarily suggest that they have all died while working on the World Cup, it does draw a correlation and carries the opinion of a labour rights group's spokesperson who says that a significant portion of the workers who have died were only there because of the World Cup and Qatar winning rights to host it.  

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Significantly, the report also states that the reason behind the deaths of migrant workers in Doha is still a mystery. Citing a case from India, where 43-year-old Madhu Bollapally was found dead in Qatar back in 2019, the report apprised that the family of the Indian migrant worker is still unaware of the reason behind his death. While authorities in Doha have claimed that Bollapally had fallen to natural causes, the family has disputed it by stating that he was completely healthy and had no reasons to have suffered heart failure. However, his family has received Rs 1.14 lakh as compensation for the 6 years Bollapally worked in Qatar, the report added. 

80% of Indians amongst 'natural deaths'

Furthermore, The Guardian's report has claimed that amongst the deaths by 'natural causes,' the most common are attributed to heart or respiratory failure. Data obtained by Guardian reveals that 69 per cent of deaths among Indian, Nepali and Bangladeshi workers are categorised as “natural”, out of which, the number stands at 80 per cent for Indians alone. 

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Prior to this, several reports have come to light that has claimed migrant workers in Qatar face inhumane labour conditions and have also been subjected to 'slavery'. When in 2015 the International Trade Union Confederation had claimed that over 1,200 workers had died while working for projects related to the World Cup, the Qatar government had quashed these claims, terming them baseless. To come clean in eyes of international media, the Qatar government had announced that it would do away with its 'Al-Kafala' system under pressure from the International Labour Organisation - a United Nations functionary. 

The Kafala system often labelled as 'modern-day slavery', prohibits workers from changing jobs or even leaving the country without their employer's approval. Following the noise over the relocation of the FIFA 2022 World Cup, the Qatar government had signed a formal cooperation agreement with the ILO promising to abolish the Kafala system. However, several reports have claimed that the agreement stands only on paper and is far-away from being implemented despite being signed back in 2019. Owing to such reports, there has been intense demand for shifting the 2022 World Cup from Qatar. 

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Qatar World Cup 2022

The 2022 FIFA World Cup is slated to be held from November 21, 2022 onwards with the final being played on December 18. This will be the first World Cup to be held in an Arab country and also the first one to be played in a different time slot rather than the traditional May-July window. The reason behind the changed schedule is due to the extensively warm weather in the middle-east during May-June and has also led to the reduction of the timeframe to merely 28 days. The changed schedule has also invited criticism with the World Cup's schedule clashing with several domestic tournaments including the prestigious Premier League in England. The 2022 Qatar World Cup bid has also faced corruption charges in the past, however, an internal investigation by FIFA had cleared Qatar of any wrongdoing. 

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