Forced labour in Qatar calls into question suitability of World Cup hosts

I have just returned from a fact finding mission to Qatar with construction workers union UCATT to look at the treatment of construction workers.  I was shocked by what I saw.

Imagine being forced to live in squalid and cramped conditions with a solid plank for a bed, cockroach-infested rooms and fetid communal toilets.

Then picture that by day you are paid slave wages to toil in conditions in which your work colleagues have literally died around you.

Now imagine you’ve been exploited to pay for this life, bound by huge interest rates which make walking away impossible. For many of the 1.2 million migrant workers delivering infrastructure for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, this existence is their everyday nightmare.

The relatively modest Qatari hotel where I stayed during the five-day visit seemed luxurious compared with what I witnessed.

The labour camp rooms are similar in size to a bedroom in a British two-up, two-down. But here eight, sometimes nine, men live, eat and sleep alongside infestations of insects and creatures that made my spine shiver.

These workers are powerless to improve their lot because it is illegal in Qatar for migrants to form or join a trade union.

Many of the migrant workers in Qatar have been duped by ruthless employment agencies who charge up to £1,000 to secure construction jobs with the promise of good wages. But many migrants find their contracts are changed on arrival and most I spoke to only earn between £35 and £45 per week.

They cannot seek a different job without permission and they even need permission to leave the country. They are trapped, desperately trying to repay astronomical interest rates on loans they took to pay the agencies.

Some 1,200 men have been killed on construction sites in Qatar since the World Cup was awarded. The death toll will be around 4,000 by the time the event starts if nothing is done.

The World Cup is one of the most glamorous sporting events on the planet. Yet behind Qatar 2022 will lie death, misery and exploitation so cruel it doesn’t bear thinking about.

But think about it we must. Another 500,000 migrants will arrive and be exposed to this before the tournament begins.

Yet there is hope on the horizon. Qatar’s “Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy” has published a workers’ charter, following international pressure.

We met the secretary general of this body, who insisted he wanted to raise standards.

This is welcome but the charter is being widely ignored and requires stronger enforcement.

FIFA must take a much firmer line. The British Government also has a role to play, as do British construction firms cashing in on Qatar’s development boom.

Unless the death toll is arrested, five times more workers will die than the number of footballers who contest the finals.

The secretary general said Qataris “are not evil people”. I’m sure he is right. But, as Edmund Burke once said: “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”

That could not be more true here. This is not about football but about our duty to protect human life.  If Qatar doesn’t clean up its act within the next 12 months, they should lose the right to host the 2022 World Cup.