If you look at pictures from Doha, you will see countless large construction sites. Hotels line up with shopping malls and gigantic stadiums that have literally been built out of the ground. Workers: inside in yellow suits and hard hats, haul stones and mix concrete while trying to protect their faces from the scorching heat with sunglasses and towels.
The whole thing serves only one purpose: Qatar wants to impress as the host of the 2022 World Cup. And in order to achieve this goal, the Gulf state accepts a lot – including the integrity of the migrant workers who were brought to Qatar for this purpose. As the British newspaper “Guardian” reports, at least 6,500 migrant workers are said to have died since the World Cup was awarded. The report left it open whether in a direct connection, i.e. in the event of an accident at the stadium, or indirectly, for example caused by the precarious conditions.
“The number 6500 is of course deeply alarming and once again gives rise to the fear that those who make the big football festival possible and create the infrastructure for it will have to pay a high price,” says Regina Spöttl, Qatar expert at Amnesty International in Germany. It was clear from the start that Qatar had to strengthen its standards and protection mechanisms for foreign workers. However, according to Spöttl, this only partially happened. “Fortunately, we have heard of reforms, but these are nowhere near enough. More needs to be done to protect migrant workers. “
Ever since Qatar won the bid for the World Cup, the human rights situation in the Gulf state has been observed. “Every country has the right to hold such a major event if it feels able and the finances are there,” says Spöttl. You couldn’t forbid anyone to do that. Organizations such as Amnesty therefore emphasize that they should inform themselves about the situation of human rights before a major event is awarded and that stakeholders should also enforce these rights. “In this case, we repeatedly appeal to Fifa and football clubs that train there, so that those responsible use their prominence and sometimes criticize them.”
Criticism of the disastrous working conditions
The criticism focuses on more than two million migrant workers, the majority of whom are involved in Qatar’s ambitious infrastructure program: Not only seven stadiums and a new airport have been built. In addition, an entire subway network and numerous accommodation options were built out of the ground. The burden of these projects is borne by the workers, who mostly have to go to work under catastrophic circumstances and live in run-down mass accommodation.
According to Anchal Vohra, the majority of the migrant workers in Qatar come from countries in South Asia. “So it is also an economic bias: The Qataris want workers to come from outside because their population is very small, but they also want to dominate these people at the same time,” says the Foreign Policy Magazine columnist and Middle East analyst. The International Trade Union Confederation warned in 2014 that there would be thousands of dead workers by the start of the World Cup if Qatar did not fundamentally change the situation.
This fear has evidently come true. The information about the death toll comes according to “Guardian” – information from inquiries to the governments of the countries of origin. The number of unreported cases is likely to be even higher because there are no figures from the Philippines and Kenya. In addition, the cases of the past months were not included. It is obvious that the majority of the dead are related to the World Cup construction projects, after all, a significant proportion of these people have only come to Qatar for this reason in recent years.
“It is incredibly difficult to verify the number of migrant workers who have died,” says Spöttl, “Qatar does not publish any data on this and there is a lot in the gray area.” The deaths are mostly attributed to heart attacks or as “natural causes.” “Dismissed. Amnesty is calling on Qatar to investigate the deaths and why so many young people have died. “If necessary, autopsies are also necessary,” says Spöttl, “and of course the families of the deceased must be compensated, after all, some of them have lost the main breadwinner, which plunges them into deep poverty in the sending countries.”
Exploitative conditions through the Kafala system
That people from countries like the Philippines go to Qatar and are exploited there is owed to the so-called Kafala system, which regulates labor migration in numerous Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia and the Emirates. As part of this “guarantee system”, household and labor in the service sector or construction industry are recruited by non-transparent agencies and placed with employers who “vouch for” entry. For many, the agencies are the only way to generate better income for themselves and their families.
The agencies are only too well aware of this power: they often charge horrific sums for job placement, so that people go into debt for years. Upon entry, workers are also forced to hand over their identity documents to the guarantors. Your residence status therefore depends on the goodwill of the employer – ideal conditions for easy exploitation of workers.
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Since the World Cup was awarded, thousands of people have come to the Gulf State to work on construction sites or in households – mostly under precarious conditions. Anchal Vohra sees historical and systematic racism against People of Color behind this: “Many of these people come from South Asia or Africa. The Qataris cannot cope with the fact that these people deserve the same rights as they should and should be equal members of society because they contribute a lot economically and socially. “
After persistent criticism of the inhumane living conditions, Qatar initiated some reforms. In 2017, for example, the government passed a law regulating working hours. And a minimum wage, which is the equivalent of 232 euros per month plus food, has also been enshrined in law. Recently there has also been a commission for the arbitration of labor disputes, which acts, for example, when workers are underpaid. Finally, the so-called “No Objection Certificate” was also abolished, so that employees can now change employers without a so-called clearance certificate and leave the country without an emigration permit from the employer. The International Labor Organization (Ilo) spoke of a “historic step” in this connection last year and claimed that the Kafala system was thus ended.
It is questionable whether one can actually speak of an abolition of the Kafala system. Because the minimum standards for working hours and salary de facto only exist on paper. If employers fail to comply, they are unlikely to be held accountable. In many cases, for example, passports are still withheld, and migrant workers are barely able to assert their rights. Only last year were Employees of the company “Qatar Meta Coats” who were involved in a World Cup project were not paid for several months. The people concerned filed complaints, but they were only rewarded after an investigation by Amnesty.
In addition, some of the migrant workers were simply deported after completion of individual projects. “In recent years, Amnesty International has repeatedly documented cases in which companies had finished their projects and then left the migrant workers to their own devices, without money, accommodation or prospects,” reports Spöttl. If they do not have a work permit or a residence permit, they can be detained and deported without their outstanding salaries. A fate that could overtake many as soon as the World Cup is over and people are no longer needed.
Many also hesitate to file a lawsuit – for example out of fear of their guarantors. This shows that access to legal remedies is still decided by the guarantor or his social influence. “For the workers it is their home because they contribute a lot economically and spend their lives there,” says Vohra, “but the power rests with the Qataris, who do not want to give up their economic control.”
Financial aspects seem to dominate
The remarkable thing is that despite all the criticisms, the number of major sporting events in Qatar seems to be increasing. Think of the 2015 Handball World Cup, the 2019 World Athletics Championships and the 2020 Club World Cup. There, too, doubts were expressed in advance, which were ultimately confirmed: the climatic conditions in the country are extremely challenging for outdoor sports. In addition, freedom of expression is still restricted and queer people are being criminalized. The impression that financial aspects are pushing aside all points of criticism is increasingly evident.
After all: the international pressure seems to be working at least with regard to the rights of the workers. “Without the World Cup, these reforms would definitely not have happened,” says Spöttl, “Sport builds bridges and that’s exactly where you have to start: It cannot be that the people who make such an event possible at all live in misery.”
Even if Qatar’s reforms so far are a first step, they do little to change the structural causes. As long as compliance with the measures is not monitored, there are no unions and the safety regulations on construction sites do not change, the death toll could continue to rise until 2022. And even the sight of the magnificent stadiums, shopping malls and luxury hotels in Doha cannot hide this fact.
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