Qatar clarifies the information and claims that 40 workers died at a construction site for the 2022 World Cup.

A spokesman for the World Cup in Qatar on Tuesday adjusted the official’s previously announced figure for workers killed building stadiums for the competition from “between 400-500” to 40.

The 2022 World Cup secretary-general, Hassan Al-Tawady, said there were 414 deaths, the spokesman said, but he was referring to the period from 2014 to 2020, and that number included more than just workers who died at the construction site. championship stadiums, of which there were 40, as well as stadiums from other sectors and throughout the country.

“Secretary General Hassan al-Tawadi stated on Piers Morgan’s Uncensored program that there were three work-related deaths and 37 non-work-related deaths in the projects of the High Committee on Delivery and Legacy (…) .), information [que] is based annually on the public records of the Supreme Committee and covers eight stadiums, 17 non-competitive venues and other places within the scope of the Supreme Committee,” the Qatar World Cup official said in a statement.

According to this source, the figures quoted by Al-Tawadi, who spoke of “between 400 and 500 immigrant worker deaths”, are in line with “national statistics covering the period 2014-2020 of all work-related deaths (414) nationwide. covering all sectors and nationalities”.

This number is a far cry from the 6,500 deaths of construction workers in Qatar reported by the British daily newspaper The Guardian in a report in early 2021.

“Every year the security in these places improves. I think overall the need for labor reform indicates that improvements need to be made. This is something we acknowledged before we applied. [melhorias] what we did didn’t happen for the World Cup. We had to do it because of our values,” Al-Tawadi said.

“The World Cup served as a catalyst,” he added.

Al-Tawadi’s comments have heightened criticism from human rights groups over the spending by the country hosting the Middle East’s first-ever World Cup on migrant workers, which has cost US$20 billion (€19.3 billion) in stadiums, lines metro and new infrastructure. required for the championship.

Amnesty International (AI) has already commented on this issue, along with the relevant director of economic and social justice, Steve Cockburn, recalling that over the past ten years, many families of immigrant workers have faced the death of their relatives. they are given an explanation or some kind of compensatory mechanism is provided.

“The continued debate over the number of workers who died in preparation for the World Cup exposes the harsh reality that many families of the victims are still waiting for truth and justice,” the head of AI said in a statement released Tuesday.

“Over the past decade, thousands of workers have returned home in coffins with no explanation given to their families,” Cockburn said, adding that “extreme heat and debilitating working conditions likely contributed to hundreds of these deaths.” but that “without careful investigation, the true number of lives lost will never be known.”

According to the director of the human rights organization, “however, families suffer from serious financial insecurity due to the loss of the main “breadwinner””.

“There is nothing natural about this scale of loss, and there can be no justification for continuing to deny families truth, justice and compensation,” the Amnesty director said, adding that “so far, all the abuses suffered by migrant workers in Qatar will not be compensated.” , the legacy of this World Cup will be seriously tarnished by their mistreatment.”

Amnesty International — Portugal also indicated that the “petition to FIFA and Qatar for compensation for exploited and abused migrant workers” is still available for signing. [que] will be addressed to the Minister of Labor of Qatar, Ali bin Samih Al-Marri, and the President of the International Football Federation, Gianni Infantino.

Since FIFA awarded Qatar the right to host the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the country has taken some steps to overhaul its hiring practices, including abolishing the so-called ‘kafala’ employment system, which tied workers to their employers. whether employees can leave their job or even the country.

Qatar also introduced a monthly minimum wage of 1,000 Qatari riyals ($275 or €265) for workers and mandatory food and housing subsidies for those who did not receive these benefits automatically from their employers, and updated safety rules to avoid death. .

Al-Tawadi’s statements also again cast doubt on the veracity of reports by governments and private companies of injuries and deaths of workers in the Gulf States, whose buildings were built by workers from South Asian countries such as India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.