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The FIFA World Cup kicked off last week in the Gulf state of Qatar, marking the 22nd tournament in the cup’s history and the first to be hosted in the Middle East. Qatar’s hosting status has been marred by controversy since its nomination in 2010 — a country smaller than the state of Connecticut with few soccer honors seemed an odd choice to many.
In preparation for the Cup, the Qatari government he reportedly spent $300 billion transforming its capital Doha with state-of-the-art stadiums, facilities and hotels to accommodate guests. Behind the scenes, the last twelve years are almost over million migrant workers which made possible the most expensive World Cup in the history of the tournament.
Qatar’s migrant workforce is estimated at 2 million, which makes almost 95% of the workforce in a country of only 3 million people. Qatar the population also increased by almost 40% after the World Cup was announced, as demand in the construction industry increased and many migrants, mostly of South Asian origin, flocked to the country to fill open jobs. Qatar has since faced accusations of widespread mistreatment of the country’s migrant workforce and downplaying of work-related deaths. The tournament organizers originally set up the official death toll is 40but this week World Cup boss Hassan Al-Tawadi stated a higher figure of migrant workers who died as a result of preparations for the tournament: around 400 to 500. Many human rights organizations suspect that the actual death toll is in the thousands.
Migrant workers often work long hours in dangerous environments and under prolonged exposure to heat, putting them at greater risk of accidents and other illnesses. Illnesses and deaths caused by heat are ubiquitous, even among otherwise young and healthy individuals. Many migrant workers return to their home countries with long-term health conditions or debilitating injuries sustained at work. At construction sites for the World Cup, it was reported that workers were routinely threatened to drink water and take breaks. Outside of working hours, migrant workers are often housed in poor conditions, denied routine medical care and face malnutrition.
Despite clear links between unsafe working and living conditions and premature deaths, the Qatari government has the accused the failure to investigate migrant deaths and the misattribution of many deaths to “natural causes” or vaguely characterized “heart failure”. Failure to report deaths as “work-related” prevents families of deceased migrants from seeking compensation from the government.
Qatar and FIFA have faced international pressure over the mistreatment and deaths of migrant workers since preparations for the tournament began. The European (EU) Parliament recently voted for the resolution which calls on FIFA to compensate the families of all migrant workers who died on World Cup assignments. The non-profit organization Human Rights Watch also presented a #PayUpFIFA campaign which demands at least $440 million in compensation for the families of migrant workers — an amount equal to the prize money awarded in the World Cup.
Reliance on migrant labor existed in Qatar long before its World Cup nomination, largely due to the region’s controversial nature “kafala” system. Since the first oil boom in the 1950s, the Gulf region of the Middle East has used foreign labor to maintain major infrastructure projects and fuel rapid economic growth. Under the kafala, or sponsorship system, the employment and immigration status of migrant workers is fully controlled by private citizens and companies, not the government. Employment and visas are intrinsically linked, and employers often have the power to revoke migrant workers’ legal status at will, putting them at risk of imprisonment or deportation. Historically, migrant workers needed their employer’s permission to transfer jobs, leave their current positions, and enter or exit the host country. Previously, under the kafala system, in most countries, workers had to apply for a specific exit permit to leave the country and “no objection” certificate to change jobs.
At its worst, the kafala system is akin to modern-day indentured servitude. Private employers are poorly regulated by state governments, and many are known to withhold wages and food, confiscate passports, and restrict the movement and communication of migrant workers. Racial discrimination and gender-based violence are also widespread in the system. Many migrant workers also pay high fees recruiters to get a job in the Gulf and then have to keep their positions (even in cases of employer abuse) to avoid going into debt or having to buy out of their contract.
As many Gulf countries now seek to diversify and modernize their economies, reliance on migrant labor has only increased. The kafala system caused a significant demographic shift, with foreigners now outnumbering natives in all Gulf countries except Saudi Arabia. Many migrant workers are drawn to work in the Gulf because of higher average wages than their home countries and the ability to send remittances to family members back home.
Many Gulf countries have since reformed their kafala systems, but the legacy of the system and its many abuses remain intact. The international attention on Qatar because of the World Cup did cause policy changes in recent years, but many say the new labor laws do not do enough to protect workers and their families. In Qatar, migrant workers are now free to change jobs without their employer’s permission, there is now a standard minimum wage, and fines have been increased for employers who withhold wages. Despite policy changes at the government level, the implementation of these new protections depends on the actions of companies and employers. Legislative reforms are often not accompanied by enforcement measures or monitoring, and companies are still not held accountable for abuses against migrant workers. Overall, migrant labor and immigration reform in the region remains difficult in the face of powerful private sectors that benefit from cheap, imported labor.
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