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Investigation
What is the human cost of the World Cup in Qatar?
As Australia's Socceroos get educated on Qatar's human rights issues ahead of the FIFA World Cup, SBS News looks at whether it's possible to count the cost the tournament has already had on the migrant workers flown in to make it happen.
Published 7 September 2022 3:49pm
By Tom Canetti
Source: SBS News
Image: The FIFA World Cup begins in November. (SBS, Getty)
The FIFA World Cup in Qatar will be one of the most luxurious ever staged, but while players, spectators and pundits will enjoy state-of-the-art stadiums and facilities, human rights advocates are asking: what's the human cost?
Before Australia even qualified for this year's tournament - which kicks off in November - some of the men's national team were getting to grips with concerns surrounding the host nation off the pitch.
Socceroos players including Mat Ryan and Jackson Irvine attended briefings with unions supporting migrant workers Qatar has recruited to build its massive infrastructure projects since being awarded the tournament in 2010, thanks to a collaboration between the footballers union PFA (Professional Footballers Australia) and Amnesty International.
Players from Australia's women's team the Matildas also took part in briefings last year, coming face-to-face (virtually) with some of the more than 30,000 migrant workers. SBS News understands a session is being organised in the coming weeks to further educate the Socceroos on human rights topics.
Migrant workers queue up for the bus back to their accommodation camp in Doha, Qatar, in 2013. Source: EPA / STR
In 2021, reported 6,500 migrant workers had died in Qatar since it was awarded the tournament. But Nikita White from Amnesty International says exact death tolls are difficult to verify as Qatar's authorities "rarely investigate migrant worker deaths," and usually attribute them to being "non-work related" cardiovascular disease or acute respiratory problems.
The Qatari government has said 37 labourers at World Cup stadium construction sites died between 2014 and 2020 according to its accident records, only three of which were "work-related".
The building projects for the World Cup include seven new stadiums, a new metro station and more than 100 hotels.
Tord Kjellstrom, a New Zealand-based professor in climate change and global health, who co-authored on young Nepali migrant workers in Qatar, says deaths "absolutely" could have been prevented by reasonable working conditions which avoid Qatar's intense heat.
"Seriously hot conditions also occur in countries like Australia and the US, and construction workers are not dying at the same rate as in Qatar during the period 2009-2015," he told SBS News.
Source: SBS News
"We concluded that the reason for this was that workers carried out heavy labour in the hot environment when they need to rest to protect their health," Professor Kjellstrom said.
Qatar introduced legislation in 2017 that prevented outdoor work between 11.30am and 3pm between 15 June and 31 August, Qatar's hottest months, the International Labour Organisation reported. That legislation was replaced last year with new rules preventing outdoor work between 10am and 3.30pm, but workers must still endure hot temperatures outside those times; the forecast temperature for Qatar's capital Doha on 8 September was 34C at 7am and 34C at 10pm.
Under the kafala system - a labour governance system used across the Arab Gulf as well as Jordan and Lebanon - migrant workers need their employer's permission to leave their jobs or to leave the country.
Employers also hold power over a worker's residency and work permits, and can cancel them at any time, in turn, leading to deportation. More than 60 migrant workers were deported this year after protesting against conditions building Qatari stadiums.
Human Rights Watch has called Qatar's kafala system "abusive" and says in some cases it may amount to "modern slavery".
Source: SBS News
Amnesty International is also concerned with Qatar's "impunity for abusive employers," she said.
"We've worked with a lot of migrant workers [in Qatar] over the years who have faced really horrifying conditions at work and their employers are never held responsible. That can be everything from working almost 24 hours a day, or you might face physical or verbal abuse from your employer."
She added that migrant workers are commonly not paid their wages for "months on end".
The Guardian reported that migrant workers commonly have to pay between $4,000 and $5,000 in recruitment fees to their employer for being hired, which in many countries is a cost that falls on the company.
The minimum wage in Qatar is $400 per month, meaning it can take workers at least a year solely to pay off their own recruitment. Some migrant workers building stadiums and landscaping for the World Cup have also reported working for around 80 cents per hour.
It's illegal for workers to form a trade union in Qatar, making it difficult to effectively demand reform.
Teams including the Socceroos are considering highlighting the issue of human rights in Qatar by taking a collective stand during the tournament, but details of what that may look like remain to be seen.
Kate Gill, former captain of the Matildas and co-chief executive of the PFA told SBS News that while Australia's footballers weren't involved in the selection of Qatar as the host country, they have since become the "face" of that decision.
German footballers ahead of their Qatar World Cup qualification match against Iceland in 2021. Source: Getty, AFP / Tobias Schwarz
"They've taken it upon themselves to make sure that they have all the information at hand so that they feel like when they're when they're there, and they're challenged or asked of their thoughts and opinions that they have an important starting point to be able to articulate their answers to that."
The United States Justice Department has alleged some FIFA officials were bribed to award Qatar their vote to host the World Cup.
Socceroos players Jackson Irvine and Mat Ryan have taken part in briefings about human rights in Qatar. Source: Getty / Speed Media/Icon Sportswire
His teammate Jackson Irvine said at the time: “I’ve made it clear to the playing group where I stand on Qatar. I would never try to speak on behalf of the group, but I think it’s important they have the information in front of them so they can make a decision whether they want to be involved."
Both players are PFA executive members.
A Qatari government source told SBS News: "the State of Qatar has undertaken major labour reforms and implemented a number of transformative measures to safeguard guest workers’ rights" in recent years.
"These measures included abolishing the kafala system, removing exit permits for all workers, removing barriers to change jobs [and] introducing a universal non-discriminatory minimum wage," as well as bans on outdoor work during certain summer hours.
The spokesperson added that eligible workers in Qatar are covered by the "Wage Protection System which obliges employers to transfer all wages through Qatari banks within seven days of their due date" and Qatar recently renewed its partnership with United Nations agency the International Labour Organization.
Companies violating Qatar’s laws are subject to "investigation and strict penalties", they said.
“I'm not saying we are perfect,” said Nasser Al-Khori, who leads Generation Amazing, a social and human legacy initiative for the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy of the tournament, during an interview with SBS News earlier this year.
“But there have been major developments and changes in the labour laws that are in favour of the workers.”
When FIFA President Gianni Infantino was asked in May if FIFA would use the profits from the World Cup to make "any sort of commitment" to help families of workers who had died in Qatar, he pointed to the introduction of a minimum wage and enhanced labour rights.
He said three people had died on the construction sites of the stadiums.
"Now 6,000 might have died in other works and so on, and of course, FIFA is not the police of the world or responsible for everything that happens around the world,” he said.
“But thanks to FIFA, thanks to football, we have been able to address the status of all the 1.5 million workers, working in Qatar."
Football Australia has been contacted for comment.
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