While FIFA commends Qatar’s “real and remarkable progress” in addressing human rights issues, European Voices is launching a planned campaign against Qatar, which will host the World Cup on November 20.
During a parliamentary hearing at the Council of Europe, Alasdair Bell, FIFA Deputy Secretary General, said that there has been clear progress in improving human and labor rights in Qatar, a process in which FIFA has been actively involved and who noted the International Labor Organization and the International Labor Federation, international trade unions and other institutions.
“This is the result of a concerted effort to improve standards and the World Cup has been an important catalyst for a positive change in legislation in Qatar. For example, Qatar has started to abolish the sponsorship system, to set a salary. non-discriminatory minimum, and strengthen protections against stress caused by high temperatures and working committees have been established.
He added that “there is considerable progress in Qatar and we have made great efforts with the Qatari authorities and NGOs, and the prevailing conditions for workers at World Cup sites have become a norm in Qatar and by 2020 around 250,000 people were able to change jobs thanks to these reforms “.
Bell pointed out that “some 300,000 workers have benefited from the application of the minimum wage and we will study the ways available to build on these reforms and ensure their sustainability. A center in Qatar is currently under consideration that provides advice to migrant workers, as well as the possibility of healing anyone who has been injured, and these matters are not easy to start ”.
This week, local Qatari newspapers criticized the “smear campaigns” against Qatar in their editorials and caricatures.
The Al-Sharq newspaper published a cartoon showing the World Cup in large dimensions, with arrows scattered around it, some of which are crooked or broken, and symbolize the criticisms faced by the gas-rich Gulf state.
The newspaper denounced the “lies, rumors and slander” spread by the media in Europe about the preparations for the 2022 World Cup.
Al-Sharq referred to a “media conspiracy against any non-European country hosting the World Cup”.
In his editorial he criticized the “systematic media campaign of the media of some European countries” which threatens to boycott the World Cup because of workers’ rights in Qatar, at a time when “these media forget the miserable conditions experienced by workers in Europe. “
The newspaper pointed out that the European media criticized the countries that hosted the last 3 editions of the World Cup, which were organized outside Europe. And he considered that “these media create a story every time for every country that hosts the tournament outside the old continent”.
He added: “He enlightened Brazil (2014) with poverty, South Africa (2010) with lack of security, Russia (2018) with freedoms and Qatar with workers.”
In turn, the Al-Raya newspaper headlined its editorial: “Our friends in the West … Don’t repeat the mistakes of the past against Qatar”, referring to a blog published by the Washington Post in 2015 that highlighted the death of thousand workers in World Cup projects, but later corrected after the Qatari government objection.
The newspaper gave advice to Western countries, writing: “Let us refrain from smear campaigns and cooperate for a world that unites peoples”.
For his part, the Qatari artist Ghada Al-Khater wrote in an opinion article published by the English-language platform “Doha News”, “Forgive me if I have questioned the intentions of European countries which, in the last decade , they watched migrants fleeing conflict, destruction and poverty … drowning in the Mediterranean “.
The Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, told the UN General Assembly last month that all fans would be welcomed to this year’s World Cup “without discrimination”.
