88% of the population in Qatar is expatriate. Only 313,000 of the emirate’s 2.6 million population are from Qatar. Live on the small peninsula more than two million foreigners who founded and kept the country alive with his own hands. Although Qatar does not give it back. Nor does it guarantee their survival. Since 2010at least 6,750 migrant workers they just died during the construction of infrastructure related to a World Cup that was about to begin. Despite the timid reforms implemented by the authorities, abuses It is dangerously common to this large population group.

The list of violations seems to never end. Common salary delays and nonpaymentshigh recruitment fees, unexplained deaths, passport theftmarathon days without water or food, lack of medical attention, unhealthy housing, uninsured jobs, meager wages and a terrible etc. Women working at home in the slave regime increase the risk of becoming a woman. victim of sexual violence. “These are violations of not only workers’ rights, but also human rights, so no one is protecting them,” he denounced. Khalid Ibrahimdirector and co-founder Gulf Center for Human Rights.

“We see how all these bad conditions did not start in Qatar, we found them already in time. Recruitment process”, Ibrahim tells this newspaper. Immigrants to secure their jobs 700 and 2.600 Euros and arriving in debt to the Arab Emirate, making them more sensitive For abuse and debt bondage. And the massive effort to build stadiums and other infrastructure for the World Cup has forced the Qatari government to hire it. 30,000 foreign workersis based on its own data. Most come from Bangladesh, India, Nepal and the Philippines.

Live and work at 50º

In the last ten years, thousands of immigrants have had to work in Turkey. literally inhumane conditions. As the Gulf warms twice as fast as the rest of the world, temperatures In Qatar they reach 50 degrees Celsius. That’s what survivors in this hell do diseases it will change your life forever. “We cannot give a specific number of all unexplained worker deaths because Qatari authorities refuse research and share extensive data, but people are likely to die from working in very harsh conditions,” he explains. Michael Pageassistant director Human Rights Watch (HRW) in the Middle East and North Africa.

Others 4,000 workers they may die by the time of the competition due to lack of security and other reasons. Qatar’s labor law provides for families of those who die or become disabled as a result of work. should receive compensation No money comes from their employers because their deaths are documented as “natural causes”. “it disappeared Justice For those who died while working for the World Cup in Qatar; their deaths are forgotten impunity Those responsible are not punished for these losses,” says İbrahim. “The loss for families is not only emotional, but also economic because the economic support of a household dies and they get nothing to make up for it,” Page adds.

under the ‘head’

“Neither these immigrants, nor anyone in general in Qatar, connotation and expressive power to be able to fight and claim what belongs to them,” says Page EL PERIÓDICO. In the case of the hyper-controlled peninsula, these are unions, strikes and demonstrations banned peacefully claim their rights. After a protest last August, at least 60 migrant workers demanding their wages were deported without seeing their money. Some workers who complain about labor law violations, imprisoned.

In an effort to suppress criticism, the Qatari authorities comprehensive labor reforms “However, they are too narrow in scope and insufficient to address such a broad issue, which includes: 12 years of harassments,” says Page. they founded minimum wage they tried to put an end to the sponsorship system called ‘kafala’, which was tasked with managing the arrival and entry of these immigrants into the country. It is a system of workers’ government that provides a workforce to employers. disproportionate royal power It facilitated all this serious history of controlling workers’ lives and abuse of their rights,” the HRW representative says.

World Cup face

aspect 95% of Qatar’s workforce, migrant workers will be the face of this World Cup. Fans and journalists will meet them in hotels, restaurants, stadiums and shops. Those who join them will likely fall victim to abuses that cannot be afforded to the public. But, what will happen to them When will the construction end? Or when the World Cup is over? “This is our biggest nightmare for us; All eyes are on Qatar at the moment, but we don’t know what will happen when the competition is over,” İbrahim grieves.

Qatar’s poor record of human rights abuses was already known before the World Cup was awarded, but it wasn’t until the last few months. choices, fans and personalities they positioned themselves against him from the world of sports. football players Norway, Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands They protested in the qualifying rounds. But it already seems too late.

“The biggest disappointment we had a lot of time; The very serious abuses faced by construction workers had been documented for years, but now they realize, Page said, through printing of fans and media who don’t want to be associated with something built on the backs of migrant workers. they died building something And they didn’t even get paid for it.”