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The number of worker deaths from the Qatar giant Globalism Experts say the cup holders may never be known, but the controversy has already affected the name of the Gulf state.
One of the richest countries in the world, Qatar has undergone a transformation since FIFA awarded the tournament in 2010 with a new metro, skyscrapers, highways, new universities, museums and a port built along with seven new stadiums and one rebuilt.
Rights groups and media reports say thousands of workers may have died on the huge construction sites. The government calls the allegations “outrageous and offensive,” and says it is considering “legal” action to defend the country’s name.
Qatar, FIFA and international unions that have pressured the Gulf state say more focus should be placed on its reforms to improve safety, set a minimum wage and give workers more rights to change jobs and even leave the country.
But as Qatar is determined to continue its modernization, it is facing pressure from the United Nations’ International Labor Organization, trade unions and foreign governments to improve its data collection to end the controversy.
The British newspaper The Guardian blew up a storm with a report in February 2021 of the deaths of 6,500 workers from India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka between 2011 and 2020. This was based on official figures from the countries.
Many other media outlets have used this to say that 6,500 people died in World Cup stadiums, fueling conspiracy theories on social media.
The International Labor Organization, which has had an office in Doha since 2018, called the figures “misleading” and said they had been falsely linked to World Cup sites without proper context.
The government says that this figure takes all foreign worker deaths over the decade and “attributes it to the World Cup. It’s not true.”
“This number (6,500) has become a symbol because it answers a question that no one else can answer,” said Jean-Baptiste Guiguin, an academic and writer in France who specializes in international sports politics.
“One could also wonder, given the publicity he received, whether he was not a tool for a strategy of foreign influence.”
Other characters hardly help in the discussion.
According to Qatar, there have been 37 deaths of foreign workers related to World Cup sites and only three in “work-related accidents”.
stuck in the mind
A report by the International Labor Organization stated that there were 50 deaths and 500 serious injuries among foreign workers in 2020.
The UN agency said the figures may be insufficient due to weak data.
But Max Tonon, head of the International Labor Organization’s office in Doha, said at a recent symposium the 6,500 figure was “very problematic” because “it’s a number that’s stuck in people’s minds and people certainly attribute it to the construction of World Cup stadiums.”
Highlighting the recent debate that took place in the European Union Parliament on human rights, he added that this figure affects the decision-making process in Qatar.
“It was very clear that policy makers, including parliamentarians, have very strong positions on Qatar based on what they read in the media.
“It was not surprising to hear a reference to the number 6,500, and it was not surprising to hear the assumption that the two million migrant workers in the country were the victims of forced labour. It was not surprising to hear that everyone linked everything in Qatar to the World Cup. In this sense it had a tangible effect on the makers of policies.”
But the ILO is pressing Qatar to improve data collection as well as implement its reforms.
Many deaths have been blamed on “natural causes” and rights groups and others say this can mask many work-related accidents.
“Given Qatar’s failure to adequately investigate the causes of worker deaths, it is very difficult to know exactly how many workers died from working in the extreme heat in Qatar, but there is no doubt that this is a very serious issue,” said Steve Cockburn. Senior researcher at Amnesty International.
“On World Cup and non-World Cup projects, thousands of deaths over the past decade remain unexplained, and it is likely that at least hundreds of them were related to unsafe working conditions,” Cockburn added.
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