By Victor Kanayo
After earlier denials, the Qatar Government has now admitted that up to 400 to 500 migrant workers died while carrying out World Cup-related jobs.
Revealing in an interview with Piers Morgan, which aired on TalkTV, the Secretary General of the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, Hassan al-Thawadi, said, “Between 400 and 500. I don’t have the precise number, that is something that is being discussed,” Thawadi said in the interview.
“One death is too many, it’s as simple as that. [But] every year the health and safety standards on the sites are improving, at least on our sites, the World Cup sites, the ones we are responsible for. Most definitely to the extent that you have trade unions [commending] the work that has been done on World Cup sites and the improvement.”
According to a report by British daily The Guardian published in 2021, more than 6,500 migrant workers from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have died in Qatar since it won the right to host the FIFA World Cup 10 years ago, and at least 1,018 among them are Bangladeshis.
Ever since Qatar was selected to host the 2022 World Cup in 2010, the attention of the international community has been focused on the country’s treatment of workers.
Amnesty International alleged that more than 15,000 people had died during the construction of stadiums.
Qataris previously gave a figure of just three work-related deaths at World Cup construction sites, with a further 37 deaths that were not work-related.
Rights groups believe the true number is likely to be far higher, but said it was impossible to establish an accurate number because deaths are not investigated.
The Supreme Committee, the Qatari entity organising the World Cup, later issued a statement reiterating the figure of three work-related deaths, adding that the estimate of 400 given to Morgan was for “all work-related fatalities nationwide in Qatar, covering all sectors and nationalities” in the years 2014-2020.
The $200bn in infrastructure spending to prepare for the World Cup encompassed many more projects than those overseen by the Supreme Committee.
The International Labour Organisation in 2020 conducted detailed research across the country that indicated there had been 50 work-related deaths, with 506 severe injuries that year.
Questions over how these workers were treated — and how many of them died during building work — have dogged the tournament organisers for years.
Many workers had lamented how they were forced to endure miserable living conditions, unpaid salaries and dangerous working environments.
