Qatar under growing pressure over workers' deaths as FIFA is urged to act

Victims' groups and UN urge football governing body to halt death toll before 2022 World Cup

As the executive committee of Fifa convened in Zurich for two days of talks including a session on Qatar's preparations for the biggest sporting event ever to be held in the Middle East, the Uefa president, Michel Platini, said he was "much more concerned" with allegations over the treatment of migrant workers in the Gulf state than with discussions over whether to move the tournament to winter.

Ramesh Badal, a lawyer in Kathmandu who represents Nepalese workers victimised in Qatar, including those who have lost hands and legs in construction accidents, demanded that Fifa place a deadline on Qatar by which it must prevent deaths and labour abuses. He said if it fails, the right to host the World Cup should be withdrawn.

"If Fifa applies pressure on Qatar now, then they will definitely change," he said. "This is now in the hands of Fifa."

The International Trade Union Confederation wrote to the Fifa president, Sepp Blatter, on Wednesday to propose a series of joint ITUC/Fifa inspections of workplaces and living quarters in Qatar to monitor the treatment and rights of workers.

"The labour inspection system in Qatar has failed, and the government's announcement would simply add some inspectors into a system that doesn't work and will not make a difference," said Sharan Burrow, the ITUC general secretary. "Workers are not able to speak freely as, under the strict visa sponsorship system, employers retain their passports and they are not allowed to change jobs or leave the country without the employer's permission."

One Nepalese worker, Bhupendra Malla Thakuri, told the Guardian he was hospitalised for three months after a truck crushed his leg and he was paid nothing for all that time, was left without adequate medical support and was forced to take his employer to court to even afford a plane ticket home.

"When I was discharged … the company only paid me for the 20-odd days I had worked that month but nothing more," he said. "They didn't give me my salary. They didn't give me anything. It was a very critical situation. I was injured and my leg had become septic."

He added "The failure to pay workers regularly is traumatising some of them."

Like any multinational business footballs governing body FIFA is more concerned with its ability to secure a profit from the World Cup than with the rights of those effected by which nation is chosen to host the event.  Time and again businesses operating near stadiums which are hosting games are forced out of business so that FIFA's corporate sponsors are able to reap a financial windfall.  

People living in the same areas are no better off forced to move as land prices skyrocket leaving them with nothing more than a few dollars on land which if sold at fair market value might insure better living conditions.      

Then there those hired to build the needed infrastructure so the games are a success for FIFA and its corporate sponsors.  Leaving them to exploited by the government of the host nation, FIFA and the construction companies.