DON’T BITE THE HAND THAT FEEDS YOU:QATAR AND THE FIFA WORLD CUP 2022

It is an infamous urban myth in India that Emperor Shah Jahan, the man behind one of the most important architectural marvels of the world, chopped the hands of the workers who built the Taj Mahal. If this is to be believed, the same disregard towards the lives of labour can presently be seen as one looks at Qatar’s eight magnificent stadiums, an airport, its intricate transit system, hundreds of hotels, and hospitals built to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup. This infrastructure has been built at the cost of thousands of migrant workers that died while constructing them.

The Announcement

In 2010 Sepp Blatter, the then president of FIFA, announced Qatar would become the ‘First Middle Eastern country’ to host the World Cup after defeating bids from the US, South Korea, Japan, and Australia.[1] This decision received instant criticism from people who saw no compatibility between the location and the event, thus creating bribery allegations against Qatar. Even after the dismissal of these allegations, the general population deemed it utterly irrational to organize a sporting event that is traditionally conducted during the summers, in a country where temperatures exceed 45 degrees Celsius during those months. Moreover, a country that was “roughly the size of Connecticut” and ‘the smallest nation to have hosted the World Cup’, evidently lacked the required area and infrastructure (Qatar only had one stadium when it was awarded the World Cup).[2]

To achieve its goal of successfully organizing the prestigious event and, more importantly, bolster its position in the region, Qatar decided to utilize its massive population of migrant workers. This migrant worker population makes up about 95% of Qatar’s total labour force and comes from some of the poorest nations around the world, mainly South Asian countries.[3]

The plight of the migrant workers

A few years into the project, reports of migrant workers facing human rights abuses started emanating from the international media. Workers in Qatar were being subjected to deadly heat stress accompanied by “gruelling working conditions, long hours, unclean living situations, and wage theft.”[4] The Guardian reveals that approximately 6,500 migrant workers just from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal, died since Qatar started its building spree in 2010 [5].

These workers, people like Anish Adhikari from Nepal, came to an “oil-rich welfare state” like Qatar to look for better economic prospects. But their aspirations were instantly shattered when they experienced the reality. Adhikari recalls being offered water that was “90% ice and 10% water, not enough for everyone to slurp”. Moreover, lack of beds, toilets, air conditioners, confiscation of passports etc. were everyday practices, that when addressed by the workers, were dispelled by the bosses who had trapped them in their worker debt. Safety hazards and accidents were increasing with no justification from Qatar except for labelling them as “natural deaths”, with failure to give any acceptable medical explanations. There were other reports of migrant workers, like Ghal Singh Rai who was employed at the Education City World Cup stadium and killed himself within a week of his arrival or Mohammad Shahid Miah, who was electrocuted in his accommodation when exposed electricity cables came in contact with water.[6]

Legal impediments

Even though the Freedom House noted that cases of human rights abuses manifolded after the announcement of hosting rights, it’s imperative to know that these atrocities are not new to Qatar. It is deeply ingrained in the long-standing practise of the 'Kafala' system or sponsorship employment, which transfers workers' freedom to their employers, preventing them from changing jobs or leaving the country without the employer's permission. Migrant labourers are dependent on their bosses for their legal residency as it is their responsibility to acquire, renew, and revoke their work and resident permits. Within 90 days of a migrant worker's arrival or the permit's expiration, employers must obtain or renew residence permits for their staff.[7] The worker is threatened with arrest, incarceration, and deportation if their employer fails to get or renew the permit within the allotted period, restricting their freedom of movement and preventing them from accessing legal representation. Additionally, an employer has the right to revoke a worker's residence permit at any moment. Moreover, most of the violations that occurred directly result from the state’s political structure itself. Other than the Kafala system, the absence of any protective legal framework for the workers to report issues like non-payment of wages, unethical recruitment, and increasing worker debt, adds up to the lack of rights for workers.

The lack of a valid Qatari residency permit was highlighted by migrant workers as a deterrent to seeking justice. Since Qatar does not permit opposition or mobilization, there are no trade unions to represent the grievances of the workers. The judiciary is controlled by the King and thus, no court would provide justice to the workers.[8] Various NGOs including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch wrote a joint letter to FIFA, asking the body to compensate the families of all the workers who succumbed to human rights abuses in the country but the progress has been meagre.[9]

Furthermore, the lack of rights put women and their safety in a more vulnerable position. The Human Rights Watch states that women are scared to report cases as the employers get angered by the complaint and the police tends to eventually side with the powerful. Approximately 1,74,000 women who work as domestic workers in Qatar. No distinction between their home and workplace in concoction with their isolation from the general population makes them even more dependent on their employers, making them more susceptible to being exploited.[10]

Failure of Qatar and FIFA

Qatar and FIFA’s response to the crisis has been, at best, capricious and disregarding. Most of the allegations were brushed under the carpet by authorities that circumvent responsibility for their actions through blatant denial. The Qatar world cup’s chief executive, Nasser Al-Khater made statements explaining how “death is a natural part of life, whether it’s at work, whether it’s in your sleep.” Most of the deaths went uninvestigated and were categorized under “cardiac arrest” or “natural causes” making them disentitled to compensation under Qatari Law.[11] Even though the Qatari Government decided to bring in reforms in their labour laws (like eradication of the Kafala system after significant pressure from the international community), they remain largely dormant in daily practices.

Similarly, FIFA has been unable to compensate the families of workers that enabled the “Best World Cup ever”[12] or mitigate the crisis even after promising to do so. Instead, a ‘Legacy Fund’ was created with no provision for workers’ compensation. Yet it has failed in answering key questions, like why their incompetency in terms of was providing secure conditions for workers knowing how important they would be in building the massive infrastructure projects.[13]

It failed to consider the concerns of women and the LGBT+ population, as well as the journalists that faced pressure for doing their duty. Being the global representative of football that aims to “unify humanitarian values”, more credibility and accountability should have been assumed for all the lives that were lost in the process instead of having the simple motive to solely extract the economic benefits from the sport. Qatar only had the ability to go on because it possessed the backing of the organization. Moreover, it showcases the hypocrisy of the West that looks down upon West Asia for its “conservative” or “oppressive” approach, but when the same is done to feed their interests, everything seems to pass with a clean chit.

Though the international community was successful in compelling the audience to look beyond the grandeur of the event, it certainly failed to take effective steps to hold Qatar and FIFA accountable or provide justice to helpless families. Teams representing different countries continued to participate and those who took a stand, were conveniently shunned. This event thus, most importantly showcased the collective failure of the world, of all the nations participating in the event, who ignored the plight of the workers that died building these grandiose infrastructural projects.

[1] Ramsay, G. (2022) How Qatar ended up hosting the World Cup, CNN. Cable News Network. Available at: https://edition.cnn.com/2022/11/23/football/qatar-fifa-world-cup-explainer-spt-intl/index.html (Accessed: March 7, 2023). [2] Mellen, R. et al. (2022) Fitting the World Cup into Tiny Qatar, The Washington Post. WP Company. Available at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/11/26/qatar-infrastructure-world-cup/ (Accessed: March 20, 2023). [3] Reality check: Migrant workers' rights in Qatar (2021) Amnesty International. Available at: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2019/02/reality-check-migrant-workers-rights-with-four-years-to-qatar-2022-world-cup/ (Accessed: March 7, 2023).

[4] Human rights abuses in Qatar 'persist on significant scale', says Amnesty Report (2022) The Guardian. Guardian News and Media. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/oct/20/fifa-world-cup-human-rights-abuses-qatar-amnesty-international (Accessed: March 7, 2023). [5] Revealed: 6,500 migrant workers have died in Qatar since World Cup awarded (2021) The Guardian. Guardian News and Media. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/feb/23/revealed-migrant-worker-deaths-qatar-fifa-world-cup-2022 (Accessed: March 20, 2023). [6] FIFA World cup Qatar 2022: Schedule, reaction and how to watch (2022) ESPN. ESPN Internet Ventures. Available at: https://www.espn.com/soccer/fifa-world-cup/story/4790467/fifa-world-cup-2022-scheduleteams-and-how-to-watch (Accessed: March 21, 2023). [7] Qatar: Significant labor and Kafala Reforms (2023) Human Rights Watch. Available at: https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/09/24/qatar-significant-labor-and-kafala-reforms (Accessed: April 17, 2023). [8] World Cup 2022: What has changed for migrant workers in Qatar? (no date) InfoStories. Available at: https://www.ilo.org/infostories/en-GB/Stories/Country-Focus/world-cup-qatar (Accessed: April 17, 2023). [9] Qatar facing renewed calls to compensate migrant workers over uninvestigated deaths (2022) The Guardian. Guardian News and Media. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/nov/17/qatar-facing-renewed-calls-to-compensate-migrant-workers-over-uninvestigated-deaths (Accessed: April 17, 2023). [10] Reality check: Migrant workers' rights in Qatar (2021) Amnesty International. Available at: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2019/02/reality-check-migrant-workers-rights-with-four-years-to-qatar-2022-world-cup/ (Accessed: March 7, 2023). [11] Qatar: Rights abuses stain FIFA World Cup (2022) Human Rights Watch. Available at: https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/11/14/qatar-rights-abuses-stain-fifa-world-cup (Accessed: March 21, 2023). [12] Al Jazeera (2022) FIFA chief praises Qatar 2022 as 'best world cup ever', Qatar World Cup 2022 News | Al Jazeera. Al Jazeera. Available at: https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/2022/12/16/infantino-qatar-2022-best-world-cup-ever (Accessed: April 17, 2023). [13] FIFA: Approve 'legacy fund' for 2022 World Cup abuses (2023) Human Rights Watch. Available at: https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/03/16/fifa-approve-legacy-fund-2022-world-cup-abuses (Accessed: March 21, 2023).

Cover Image: ISSPF

About the author: Rajshree Singh is a final year student of B.A (Hons.) Global Affairs. Her academic interests include gender studies, history and economics.