London: The extent of the risks faced by migrant construction workers building the infrastructure for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar has been laid bare by official documents revealing 185 Nepalese men died last year alone.
The 2013 death toll, which is expected to rise further as new cases come to light, is likely to spark a fresh wave of concern over the treatment of migrant workers in Qatar and increase the pressure on Fifa to force meaningful change.
According to the documents the total number of verified deaths among workers from Nepal, just one of several countries that supply hundreds of thousands of migrant workers to the gas rich state, is now at least 382 in two years alone. At least 36 of those deaths were registered in the weeks following the global outcry that followed the Guardian’s original revelations in September.
The revelations forced Fifa president Sepp Blatter to promise football would not “turn a blind eye” to the issue following a stormy executive committee meeting. The Qatar ministry of labour hired law firm DLA Piper to conduct an urgent review and Hassan Al Thawadi, chief executive of the World Cup organising committee, said the findings would be treated with utmost seriousness, vowing the tournament would not be built “on the blood of innocents”. The DLA Piper report is expected to be published in the coming weeks.
The Nepalese make up around one sixth of Qatar’s 2 million population of migrant workers, with verified figures for the 2013 death rates among those from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and elsewhere yet to emerge.
The Nepalese organisation working with the families of dead workers to repatriate their bodies and campaign for adequate compensation from the companies that employed them under the kafala sponsorship system said on Friday that Fifa should do more.
The overall death toll is expected to rise still further, with the Pravasi Nepali Co-ordination Committee (PNCC), which has cross checked the figures from official sources in Doha against death certificates and passports, still receiving new cases on a regular basis. The Guardian has seen evidence of at least a further eight cases, which would take the 2013 total to 193.
The PNCC called on Fifa’s sponsors to reconsider their relationship with world football’s governing body, which awarded the World Cup to Qatar in December 2010.
“Fifa and the government of Qatar promised the world that they would take action to ensure the safety of workers building the stadiums and infrastructure for the 2022 World Cup. This horrendous roll-call of the dead gives the lie to those reassurances,” said a spokesman for the PNCC.
“These were young or otherwise able-bodied men, with their futures in front of them, families at home and everything to live for. Many have been literally worked to death. Some have met with even more sinister ends. All have been betrayed by Fifa.”
