Qatar World Cup organizers admit workers were exploited
LONDON (AP) — Qatar World Cup organizers have admitted that employees had been exploited whereas contracted for FIFA’s preparation tournaments within the Gulf State.
The acknowledgement of failings got here after an investigation by Amnesty Worldwide which mentioned safety guards had been compelled to work in situations it known as “compelled labor” by exceeding the 60-hour most work week and never having a day without work for months and even years.
Qatar supplied no particulars of the abuses that concerned subcontractors engaged on the Membership World Cup and Arab Cup in 2021.
“Three firms had been discovered to be non-compliant throughout plenty of areas,” Qatar World Cup organizers mentioned in a press release. “These violations had been fully unacceptable and led to a variety of measures being enforced, together with inserting contractors on a watch-list or black-list to keep away from them engaged on future tasks – together with the FIFA World Cup – earlier than reporting mentioned contractors to the Ministry of Labor for additional investigation and punitive motion.”
The exploitation of employees continues in Qatar regardless of World Cup organizers saying it has launched measures since 2014 — 4 years after FIFA awarded it internet hosting rights — to guard well being and security.
“Most of the safety guards we spoke to knew their employers had been breaking the regulation however felt powerless to problem them,” mentioned Stephen Cockburn of Amnesty Worldwide. “Bodily and emotionally exhausted, employees saved reporting for responsibility underneath risk of monetary penalties — or worse, contract termination or deportation.
“Regardless of the progress Qatar has made in recent times, our analysis means that abuses within the personal safety sector — which shall be more and more in demand in the course of the World Cup — stay systematic and structural.”
The draw for the World Cup happened in Doha final week forward of the Nov. 21-Dec. 18 match.
“FIFA should give attention to doing extra to stop abuses within the inherently perilous personal safety sector, or see the match additional marred by abuse,” Cockburn mentioned. “Extra broadly, FIFA should additionally use its leverage to strain Qatar to higher implement its reforms and implement its legal guidelines.”
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