Amnesty International's report says more than 1,600 workers building infrastructure in Qatar have submitted complaints, and none have been paid compensation
Thursday 19 September 2019 09:13, UK
Amnesty International says thousands of migrant workers employed in building the infrastructure for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar are going unpaid, despite the Qatari government promising it would improve workers' rights.
The charity has produced a 52-page report, which includes anecdotal evidence about how one worker was forced to find food to eat from waste bins, and another who worked for five months without a day off - and without pay.
Last October, Qatar announced it would introduce a Workers' Support and Insurance Fund to provide compensation to employees who had not been paid.
Amnesty says almost a year later, the Fund remains unfunded and unused.
The report's figures reveal that more than 1,600 workers have submitted complaints to the Committees for the Settlement of Labour Disputes - none of whom have been paid compensation.
In response, FIFA says that it is working closely with the Qatar authorities to improve working conditions, but points out that the employees in Amnesty's report are not directly working on World Cup venues.
A FIFA spokesperson has told Sky Sports News: "FIFA and its partners involved in the preparation of the FIFA World Cup in Qatar take workers' rights very seriously as it has been acknowledged by different international organisations in the recent past.
"As confirmed by Amnesty International, the report does not concern FIFA World Cup sites. The Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy has also confirmed that the contractors referenced in the report have never been engaged on FIFA World Cup projects in Qatar."
It comes after Amnesty produced a previous report in 2017 following a phone survey where the charity spoke to 414 Nepali migrant workers, 88 per cent of whom reported that they had paid excessive, illegal fees to agents for their jobs there.
Qatar hosts about two million migrant workers, but Amnesty says the country's authorities constantly fail to meet international labour standards.
Amnesty has repeatedly called on Qatar to abolish the abusive "kafala" system, which ties workers to their employers for up to five years and prevents some groups of workers - such as domestic workers - from leaving the country without their employers' permission
