FIFA: It's Not Our Problem That 100's of Have Died In Qatar

When FIFA awarded the World Cup to Qatar many questions were raised as to the feasibility of having the tournament in the Middle East in the summer, whether Qatar which had never hosted such an event was capable of putting it on, along with questions concerning the size of the bid.

Since construction has begun there have been serious allegations raised about the working  conditions faced by those involved in the building of the stadiums.

FIFA Secretary-General Jerome Valcke doesn't think its a problem for FIFA to deal with.

 In an interview with Al Jazeera, FIFA's secretary-general, Jerome Valcke, said that while FIFA was supporting talks between Qatar and some unions, it could not be held responsible for issues that were not under FIFA's umbrella."FIFA is not a United Nations. FIFA is about sport," Valcke said.
"We can't tell a country what should be their foreign policy. That's not our role. It's unfair if we get pressure from the rest of the world saying 'hey FIFA, that's what's happening in that country and you have to change the way the country behaves.
"We can tell the country it goes against FIFA's rules, it goes against FIFA's ethics codes. It goes against FIFA''s principle. And we can help and change. But we cannot be seen as responsible for what's happening in different countries."

So FIFA's only option is to pay lip service to the criticism and wash their hands of any responsibility for the actions of the organizing committee they awarded the tournament to.

From the Los Angeles Times

The Persian Gulf emirate of Qatar, flush with oil riches and seeking to push its way to the front of the international stage, is in the midst of an enormous, decade-long building boom to construct facilities and infrastructure for the 2022 World Cup soccer tournament, the largest and most-viewed sporting event in the world. Unfortunately, Qatar is preparing for that moment of international cooperation and sport by grievously exploiting its foreign workers, subjecting them to dangerous conditions that should be drawing forceful condemnations from the world community.

A report last week by the government of India, which supplies a large share of Qatar's workers, suggests that more than 500 of its citizens have died there since 2012, primarily, according to the Guardian, in either on-site accidents or from working in inhumane conditions. Nepal, another big supplier of Qatar's labor force, recorded the deaths of 383 Nepali workers in that country in 2012-13.

International observers and human rights groups have described working conditions for foreign laborers in Qatar as intolerable and inhumane, citing dangerous work sites, confiscations of passports by employers, withheld wages, oppressively overcrowded worker dormitories and limited access to food and water despite 12-hour work shifts often in triple-digit temperatures. Although conditions are difficult for foreign workers in many gulf countries, Amnesty International notes that Qatar is different because of its unusual exit permit system — under which foreign nationals can't leave the country without permission from their employers — its ban on unions and the sheer size of its foreign labor force.

From the Guardian

Calls grow for Fifa to take decisive action as human-rights group prepares to release report on mounting death toll

More than 400 Nepalese migrant workers have died on Qatar's building sites as the Gulf state prepares to host the World Cup in 2022, a report will reveal this week.

The grim statistic comes from the Pravasi Nepali Co-ordination Committee, a respected human rights organisation which compiles lists of the dead using official sources in Doha. It will pile new pressure on the Qatari authorities – and on football's world governing body, Fifa – to curb a mounting death toll that some are warning could hit 4,000 by the time the 2022 finals take place.

It also raises the question of how many migrant workers in total have died on construction sites since Qatar won the bid in 2010. Nepalese workers comprise 20% of Qatar's migrant workforce, and many others are drafted in from countries such as India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

From Amnesty International

“The reality is that all foreign workers across the country are still subject to the restrictive sponsorship system which facilitates abuse,” said James Lynch.

"There are also serious questions relating to the implementation of these standards. In our experience enforcement is almost always the stumbling block. We need to know how the Supreme Committee will effectively address non-compliance by contractors and subcontractors.”

“Ultimately, these standards alone will not be enough - we need to see real reform including to the sponsorship system, led by the government, for all of Qatar's workers."

In November 2013, Amnesty International published a detailed report into the abuses against migrant construction workers in Qatar. For a full copy of the report please see:  The Dark Side of Migration: Spotlight on Qatar’s construction sector ahead of the World Cup

For further information or to arrange an interview with James Lynch, Amnesty International’s researcher on migrants’ rights in the Gulf please contact:

FIFA doesn't care about the abuse of workers building those stadiums for the 2022 World Cup its the profits that are most important.