Human Rights Violations Amidst Qatar World Cup Controversies

This year’s Fifa World Cup will be held on November 20th in Doha, Qatar, and will be the first time in the Middle East. The overall cost of hosting this year’s world cup has been estimated at upwards of $200 billion USD as Qatar has invested in creating seven new stadium venues to host the 32 teams and 64 matches spanning the games. Controversies have plagued the developmental agenda for the Doha world cup since the country began its ambitious construction on the venues 10 years ago. As it draws nearer to completion, many controversies have been at the forefront of media coverage, with allegations of human rights violations and deaths throughout the development process. 

Committing to hosting the Fifa World Cup is a complex request as the event will attract more than 1 million attendees and close to 3 billion virtual spectators. Due to Qatar’s position in the middle east and economic standing, they had to establish all new venues to accommodate the influx of tourists that will arrive later this month. The overhead cost of $200 billion USD has contributed to developing those arenas, ceremonies, workshops, press, housing, and sales. The country has enlisted the help of hundreds of thousands of migrant workers over the last 10 years; however, human rights activists have highlighted the many unsafe conditions, low pay, and faulty system trapping workers in their jobs developing the venues. 

Many migrant workers coming to Qatar are from India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Bangladesh. They were promised substantially increased wages compared to their home countries, although many were unaware of the Qatari employment systems and conditions they would face. The daily life of migrant workers often includes 12 hours of manual labor in temperatures upwards of 100 degrees Fahrenheit. These people were delegated to live in squalid and overcrowded worker camps on the outskirts of developments. The exploitation continued as Qatar is one of the world’s richest per capita countries. It also has many complex employment laws governing its migrant workers. 

A major injustice argued by human rights activists included the highly controversial kafala system whereby migrant workers had to sign away rights to Qatari companies to get a sponsored visa. The sponsors withheld passports, rewrote contracts, and often withheld wages. Employers also required recruitment fees to be paid by workers forcing them into debt with the companies, going months without sending money back to their families in need. Migrants were entirely helpless as the systematic laws also prevented them from leaving the country, changing jobs, or protesting as demonstrating is illegal. 

Immense pressure from the world cup administration and fans resulted in reforming and removing the kafala system towards these migrant workers in 2019. The reformation did improve their working conditions; however, two years later, it is still evident that the weak implementation of the changes still resulted in missing wages, extraneous hours, outrageous recruitment fees, and legal dilemmas for migrant workers. Amnesty groups characterize the workers' condition as a form of modern slavery, with very little rights protection outlined in contracts and virtually no freedom to unionize or gather fair wages in these developments. 
The dangerous conditions have also resulted in tens of thousands of migrant deaths over the last decade in relation to the world cup developments. Many deaths have resulted in outcries from cup supporters and fans who want to see intense reformation in the Qatari facilitation of these people. While some reformations have begun, the weak implementation by officials and lack of resources delegated to the migrant worker has not improved the overall conditions and slavery-type work. The Fifa president and governing body have urged players and fans to focus on football and not to get dragged into the ideological or political battles surrounding the location of the games. Response to their statement has garnered mixed reviews as many amnesty groups condemned the views as hypocrisy and a stark ignorance of these serious human rights issues.