KATHMANDU, NOVEMBER 17

Migrant workers and their families are demanding compensation from FIFA and Qatar authorities for abuses, including unexplained deaths, that workers suffered preparing for the 2022 FIFA Men's World Cup, Human Rights Watch said today.

HRW released a six-minute video days before the World Cup begins on November 20 featuring workers, their families, and football fans from Nepal who speak out against abuses Nepalis working in Qatar had to suffer while constructing stadiums in Qatar in the run up to the World Cup.

Unlike previous tournaments, the emotions surrounding the 2022 World Cup in Nepal and countries, where football is highly celebrated, go beyond the joy of watching the game. For Nepalis seen in the video, and for those from other countries that sent workers during the 12- year preparation for the World Cup, their realities are entangled with the sacrifices they made.

They include parents who were unable to see their children for years to earn money to support their education, workers who endured physical labour for long hours in Qatar's extreme heat, and families of workers who died from unexplained causes.

As Kshitiz Sigdel, an ardent football fan and founder of a fan club in Kathmandu, told HRW, 'Migrant workers are the backbone not just for Nepal's economy via remittances, but also the backbone for Qatar's economy.'

'Migrant workers were indispensable to making the World Cup 2022 possible, but it has come at great cost for many migrant workers and their families who not only made personal sacrifices, but also faced widespread wage theft, injuries, and thousands of unexplained deaths,' said Rothna Begum, senior researcher at HRW.

'Many migrant workers, their families and communities are not able to fully celebrate what they have built, and are urging FIFA and Qatar to remedy abuses suffered by workers.'

Ram Pukar Sahani, a former Qatar migrant worker himself, heard about his father's death in Qatar from a friend. In disbelief, he called his father's number in Qatar.

His father's friend answered, confirming the devastating news. 'I dropped the phone, and I passed out,' he recalls tearfully. He says that his father died at a construction work site in his uniform, but was ineligible for compensation because his death certificate read 'acute heart failure due to natural causes.'

Under Qatar's labour law, deaths attributed to 'natural causes' without being adequately investigated are not considered work-related and are not compensated.

Many workers experienced rampant wage theft. A worker who had participated in a strike to protest unpaid wages despite fear of reprisal says, 'There are two things we need. Regular work and regular pay for work completed. Unfortunately, both are not guaranteed in Qatar, especially if you land a bad employer.'

Employers and recruiters in Qatar were able to abuse and exploit migrant workers' destitution and lack of opportunities in their own countries, under the kafala (sponsorship) system, which gives employers disproportionate control over workers, Human Rights Watch said. In one of the world's richest countries, migrant workers lived in impoverished conditions in overcrowded accommodations.

Qatari authorities initiated important labour and kafala reforms, but many migrant workers did not benefit, either because they were introduced late, were poorly implemented, or in cases of initiatives by the Supreme Committee, the government entity in charge of preparing for the World Cup, were too narrow in scope.

Those who fell through the cracks need financial compensation, HRW said.

A version of this article appears in the print on November 18, 2022 of The Himalayan Times.