Human rights issues involving the 2022 FIFA World Cup
There have been several criticisms and controversies of perceived human rights violations related to the organisation and hosting of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
[1][2][3][4][5] The state of women's rights in Qatar and a British tourism executive hired to promote the country dying under suspicious circumstances have also been sources of controversy.
[11][12] Human Rights Watch and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) state that the kafala system leaves migrants vulnerable to systematic abuse.
[13] In November 2013, Amnesty International reported "serious exploitation", including workers having to sign false statements that they had received their wages in order to regain their passports from their sponsors' custody.
[15] An investigation by The Guardian in the same year claimed had their identity papers taken away from them, were compelled to perform forced labor, and that they were not paid on time or at all, making some of them effectively slaves.
The report stated that there was evidence to suggest that workers face exploitation and abuse as defined by the International Labour Organization (ILO).
[17] By 2015, Michael van Praag, president of the Royal Dutch Football Association, requested the FIFA Executive Committee to pressure Qatar over the allegations to ensure better workers' conditions.
[19] In August 2022, Qatari authorities arrested and deported over 60 migrant workers who protested about non-payment of wages by their employer, Al Bandary International Group, a major construction and hospitality firm.
[21] In September 2022, Amnesty published the results of a poll of over 17,000 football fans from 15 countries which showed 73% supported FIFA compensating migrant workers in Qatar for human rights violations.
[26] Amnesty International have questioned whether Qatar would complete the promised labour reforms before the start of the World Cup, a sentiment that FIFA backed.
[28][29] In February 2019, Amnesty International said Qatar was falling short on promised labour reforms before the start of the World Cup, a sentiment that FIFA backed.
[43] At the March 2022 FIFA Congress in Doha, Lise Klaveness—head of the Norwegian Football Federation—criticised the organisation for having awarded the World Cup to Qatar, citing the various controversies surrounding the tournament.
[46] Shortly before the tournament began, France 24 broadcast a report titled "The plight of migrant workers in Qatar", adding more details to the controversy and how many reform laws have not been followed.
[47] In June 2023, Human Rights Watch said it "acknowledges and applauds" reforms in the migrant sector made by Qatar during the World Cup, including the creation of a department for Occupational Health and Safety.
[16] After visiting a labour camp in 2012, Sharan Burrows of the ITUC stated that "If two years on [since the award of the 2022 World Cup] the [Qatari] Government has not done the fundamentals, they have no commitment to human rights".
[13] The Qatar 2022 Committee said: "Our commitment is to change working conditions in order to ensure a lasting legacy of improved worker welfare.
[49][50] In November 2017, the ILO started a three-year technical cooperation programme with Qatar to improve working conditions and labour rights.
[51] The Guardian estimated that,[16] by the time the competition would be held, without reforms of the kafala system, out of the 2 million-strong migrant workforce[41] up to 4,000 workers could die due to lax safety and other causes.
[54] The Wall Street Journal reported in June 2015 the ITUC's claim that over 1,200 workers had died while working on infrastructure and real-estate projects related to the World Cup, and the Qatar Government's counter-claim that none had.
[56] In February 2021, another investigative report published by The Guardian used data from embassies and national foreign employment offices to estimate a death toll of 6,500 migrant workers since the World Cup was awarded to Qatar.
Jim Waterson of The Guardian commented that the Qatari authorities "probably hoped [the opening ceremony] would be the moment when the global media finally focused on football rather than human rights".
[64] On September 28, 2022, Danish sportswear company Hummel unveiled Denmark's "toned down" kits for the tournament in protest of Qatar's human rights record.
[67] In March 2022, FIFA president Gianni Infantino claimed in an interview that the Gulf nation is being progressive in terms of the labour rights and migrant rights issues that prevailed previously, adding "I am pleased to see the strong commitment from the Qatari authorities to ensure the reforms are fully implemented across the labour market, leaving a lasting legacy of the FIFA World Cup long after the event, and benefiting migrant workers in the host country in the long term.
Moreover, it added that "Western criticism" failed to "distinguish between truly repugnant regimes and merely flawed ones", and that many "indignant pundits" simply sounded as if they did "not like Muslims or rich people".
