Qatar for FIFA World Cup becomes costly for Muslim migrant workers as 6,500 lost the battle of their lives during construction work.
According to official figures, about 6500 Muslim migrant workers died in Qatar, which belonged from the subcontinent since it won the right to host the world cup 10 years ago.
Human Rights authorities gathered official data from Bangladesh, Nepal, India and Sri Lanka, which revealed that 5927 migrant workers died during 2011-2020. In Qatar, further 824 deaths were reported from Pakistan’s embassy between 2010 and 2020.
These figures do not include deaths from several countries that sent many workers to Qatar, so that’s why the death toll is significantly higher. Also, the deaths which took place in 2020 are not included.
Since 2011, a huge number of migrant workers had died. They were only in the country because the right to host the world cup was won by Qatar, as stated by Nick McGeehan. He is a director at Foursquare Projects, an advocacy group specialising in labour rights in the Gulf.
Hiba Zayadin, a Gulf researcher for Human Rights Watch, further added that Qatar is further dragging its feet on this urgent and critical issue in apparent disregard for workers lives.
To stop all the sudden deaths occurring without any explanation, we have called on Qatar to amend its laws to provide forensic investigations and pass legislation to provide that all death certificates add a reference to a medically meaningful cause of death.
Qatar has started an unprecedented building programme in the last 10 years to prepare for the 2022 football tournament. 7 new stadiums have been added, and projects have been completed, including public transport, airport, hotels, new city, and roads that will host the World Cup Final.
The number of deaths that does not dispute is proportionate to the size of the migration workforce and the figures, as stated by Qatar’s government.
