Amnesty International today demanded an investigation into the circumstances in which thousands of workers died building the stadiums and infrastructure that will host the World Cup in Qatar, as well as the creation of a compensation fund.
A month before the start of the games in the country, Amnesty is today launching a new petition asking Qatar and the International Football Federation (FIFA) to take responsibility for compensating the families of victims and workers who have survived accidents at work. , mainly migrants from the Himalayas.
“The balance we are making is that nothing very significant has been done,” Pedro Neto, a spokesperson for Amnesty International in Portugal, said in an interview with Lusa, denouncing situations of arrears, or that “not fully were paid”, and from refusing workers’ rest days.
“To this day, unsafe working conditions still exist,” confirms Pedro Neto, underlining the obstacles to changing jobs “either when employers keep the migrants’ passports” or through “other forms for which permission is required”.
In a statement released today, Amnesty International acknowledges that the country has adopted changes to its labor laws, within the scope of the obligations required to host the World Cup, but believes the changes are insufficient and should be implemented. closed, one month after the start of the competition.
“There is also something that has not yet been done, which is an investigation that needs to take place into the deaths of thousands of workers during the construction of stadiums and other infrastructure,” underlined the executive director of AI in Portugal.
Amnesty has already launched a petition (PayUpFIFA), as part of a global campaign promoted by several human rights organizations, demanding EUR 433 million for a fund to support the families of workers who have died and those who survived the work during the build-up of the World Cup.
“We estimate that FIFA will get much more revenue from this tournament. We estimate €5.9 billion. because it did not own the works, it was the government of Qatar. However, it was FIFA that was willing to World Cup in that country, knowing the problems associated with the working conditions of migrants, because it is not something that starts with the construction of the stadiums, it existed long before that!”, justified Pedro Neto, for whom the International Federation ” an excellent opportunity” to pressure Qatar to govern in a manner “with greater respect for human rights”.
In addition to the issues related to workers, there are also “gender equality issues,” he claimed.
Migrants from countries such as Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and other, especially Asian states, can easily enter Qatar due to the lack of labor in a country of less than three million inhabitants. The problem, according to the head of AI, is going out: “They can’t visit their family, they have a lot of difficulties – when they receive their salary – to send money to the family.”
According to Pedro Neto, a survey of football fans in 15 countries found that the majority agree that FIFA compensates workers. “73% of adults agree that FIFA should use some of the championship’s revenue to compensate employees,” the AI spokesperson said, indicating that 67% of respondents – in a universe of nearly 20,000 people – associations of national footballers want to speak out publicly about the human rights issues related to the World Cup in Qatar, even if that stance implies “going against FIFA”.
When the controversy arose around the organization of the event in Qatar, pledges were made in this area, but “all the changes have been very slow,” Pedro Neto noted when referring to the law changes promoted by the government to “more justice” in workers’ rights.
In the document Amnesty is launching internationally today, Amnesty cites several specific cases, through employee and family reports.
One of those workers, Joshua [nome fictício], who worked as a security guard, moved from Kenya to Qatar, where he recently left before canceling his contract due to working conditions. He told Amnesty that it was unbearable to continue working for four months in a company where he worked.
Throughout that period, he reported, he was “overloaded with work,” had only two days off, and there were constant delays in paying wages. “The company has withheld my visa, so I can’t go back (to Qatar) if I get a job with another company,” he explained.
Amnesty stresses that the deaths of thousands of migrants in the past decade have yet to be explained, adding that at least a few hundred had to work in intense heat.
Bhumisara [nome fictício] she is one of the widows whose death of her husband remains unexplained. “Life has become a broken mirror, I have cried many times. It is very difficult to be alone,” she confessed to the human rights organization, which uses her testimony to warn of the poverty situation of many families for lack of support.
Source: DN
