The human cost of the Qatar World Cup
The official emblem for the 2022 Fifa World Cup is unveiled in Doha, Qatar. Photo: Christopher Pike/ Getty Images“I always pray that I don’t get sick,” says David* in a text message. He is resting on a bunk bed in a labour camp outside Doha, Qatar. He arrived from East Africa a few months earlier to work as a security guard at a downtown hotel that will host football fans and visitors during the 2022 Fifa World Cup.
The German team ahead of their World Cup qualifier against Iceland in Duisburg, Germany. Photo: Tobias Schwarz – Pool/ Getty Images A friend of Powell’s has been working at Al Bateel Securicor for four years. “I don’t have a medical card,” he says. “They were going to provide one, but until now, no medical card. I work 14 to 15 hours a day. They don’t give us vacation. Even on Friday [a day of rest in Arab countries], you go to duty. There is duty every day, no off.”
Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al Thani holds the World Cup replica after Fifa president Sepp Blatter announced in Zurich, Switzerland, that Qatar would host the tournament. Photo: Reuters/ Christian Hartmann English newspaper The Guardian, Norwegian magazine Josimar and Danish daily Ekstra Bladet have been among the media consistently reporting on abuses. As far back as 2013, an investigation by The Guardian found evidence of forced labour. The article’s headline, “Qatar’s World Cup Slaves”, left little to the imagination.
But Nicholas McGeehan, one of the founding directors of human rights organisation FairSquare Research and Projects, disputes this. “Kafala has been eliminated in law, but kafala is a lot more than a law. It’s an entrenched social practice that dates back to the 1920s and 1930s. It has been the prime system that has enabled national employers to regulate a non-national workforce. Getting rid of it requires not just the legal abolition of it, but wholesale political will.
The 60 000-capacity Al Bayt Stadium under construction in Doha, Qatar. Photo: Lars Baron/ Getty Images
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