World Cup 2022: Behind the ball Annenberg Media – uscannenbergmedia.com

With only a year to go, the soccer World Cup 2022 is just around the corner; fans are already ordering their official jerseys and looking for a flight to support their favorite team in Qatar. Twenty-year-old Ghal Singh Rai is also getting ready for this worldwide event; to make sure the stadiums and roads are ready to receive these fans.

In his home country, Nepal, he paid a recruitment fee of 935 British pounds to secure a job as a cleaner. He said goodbye to his family and arrived in Qatar to find better economic opportunities. A week later, he killed himself.

Since 2010, when Qatar was designated the host of the 2022 World Cup, 6,500 migrant workers have died. Men from India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Kenya and the Philippines have arrived in the Gulf country in search of economic opportunities. Instead, they are exposed to extreme working conditions that lead to dreadful consequences even death. The true causes of the fatalities however remain uncertain, as Qatars government has failed to examine the victims, leaving their families with an unexplained void in their lives and without the ability to properly grieve. May Romanos, Gulf Researcher at Amnesty International, has been talking to families of workers who unexpectedly passed away.

None of the family members expected they would die, Romanos said. They are aware of the conditions which loved ones are working under, but their deaths are unexpected.

According to an investigation done by The Guardian, data from India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal revealed that 5,927 migrant workers have died in Qatar, and Pakistans embassy reported 824 deaths. Numbers from Kenya and the Philippines remain unknown.

According to the Qatar 2022 Official website, approximately 1.5 million people are expected to travel to Qatar to support one of the 32 qualified soccer teams during the 2022 World Cup, which will take place from Nov. 21-Dec 18. The government has enlisted migrant workers to build seven stadiums, an airport, roads, a public transport system, hotels, and a new city for the final. While the Fdration Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the host of the World Cup, has paid English football player David Beckham 150 million to become the face of the event, the two million migrants who have been working in Qatar for the past 11 years have been living paycheck-to-paycheck, with the uncertainty of a tomorrow.

The truth of the working conditions in Qatar

Mohammad Shahid Miah left Bangladesh in 2017, after paying an agency more than 3,500 in recruitment fees to secure a job in Qatar. One night, as rain entered his home, exposed cables came into contact with the downpour. Mohammad was electrocuted to death. The still pending debts of the recruitment fees have now passed to his parents, who still await compensation from the Qatari government.

Migrant workers are given dirty, cramped and sometimes illegal accommodations. Amnesty International claims to have witnessed workers sleeping in bunk beds in rooms of eight or more; Qatari law allows a maximum of four beds per room, prohibits sharing a bed or the use of bunk beds. Romanos said that these accommodations are often called villas, " but she claims they are labor camps, where a kitchen and a toilet are shared among 50 people.

Without safe accommodations to sleep in, workers are exposed non-stop to the natural conditions of Qatar; in summer, temperatures can vary between 35 degrees and 45 degrees Celsius (95 to 113 Fahrenheit). FIFA took these dangerous conditions into account when organizing the World Cup; instead of hosting the event during the usual summer months of June and July, FIFA decided to hold the event during November and December. The workers, however, did not benefit from the same thought process.

Amnesty International claims that sometimes workers have to commute for long hours to get to their workplace and are then forced to work for 14 hours a day, without being paid for the overtime.

Sometimes the precautions to protect the workers are not there, Romanos said. That is leading to an increased number of young people dying from unknown reasons.

Workers sometimes die after suffering a cardiac or respiratory deficiency. Barun Ghimire, a human-rights lawyer from Nepal, noted that workers leave their home country healthy, and, a week after working in Qatar, die of what the government of Qatar titles, natural causes.

Its questionable because you send a healthy, young population to work abroad, and theyre dying, Ghimire said.

Even as migrant workers struggle to survive, huge debts keep them motivated to carry on. To secure a job in Qatar, the workers must pay a fee; fees range between $500USD up to $4,300USD. Burning their savings and leaving their country in debt is not a concern, as they believe they will be landing in a well-paid job. However, a report released by Amnesty International stated that these workers are promised a job that will pay around $300USD a month, but later find out this isnt the case; the average monthly salary of men who work for the Khalifa stadium is $220USD.

Even the reduced salary comes with complications: a report released by Business and Human Rights Resource reported that in 71% of the cases, workers claimed to have unpaid or delayed wages. This has affected 12,000 workers since 2016. Romanos said that the workers are aware they cant lose their job, leaving them vulnerable in front of their employers.

You come in a weak position to negotiate because you have loans to pay back home and a family that relies on you, Romanos said.

The workers home countries: economic deterioration and social pressure

The question remains: why do migrant workers, who have witnessed how people from their own countries are being treated, or see that they do not return at all, still decide to travel to the Gulf country in the hopes of economic opportunity?

In Bangladesh, the amount of labor available far exceeds the number of available jobs, leaving a big part of society unemployed. A report released by the International Labor Organization claimed that the unemployment rate reached 5.3% in 2020. Mohammad Jalal Uddin Sikder, Associate Professor and a member of the Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit at the Daffodil International University in Bangladesh, believes that the government encourages workers to go abroad to reduce unemployment figures.

They want to ensure the quantity of people they send, ignoring the quality of the conditions, Uddin Sikder said.

This all works to the advantage of the receiving countries. They know that, in many cases, employment in their country is the workers only option if they want to receive a paycheck at the end of the month.

That is why you are seeing that people are being exploited in Qatar or Dubai, Uddin said. They are picking up on the weakness.

In Nepal, the workers who decide to migrate come from economically vulnerable families and dont have the opportunity to sustain themselves in their home countries. In addition to this, Ghimire believes that social pressure plays a big role in why Nepalese workers migrate abroad. Even though they are aware that they might not find jobs in the host country, Ghimire believes that the social dynamics weigh heavier.

What workers see is the potential of financial growth and what they can bring from the destination country, which often outweighs what they can make in their home country, Ghimire said.

Beyond social and economic pressures, the fact is they are often unaware of the conditions they will be exposed to. In most of the countries from which these workers emigrate, there is mandatory training to ensure they learn about what jobs theyll be working on and the natural and cultural conditions of the receiving country, among other things. However, Ghimire claims that many Nepalese workers do not attend.

As an immigration lawyer, this is something that Ghimire is fighting for: he wants to give workers enough tools to defend themselves abroad if needed. He claims that the changes must begin within their own country and that Nepal should review its policies to ensure the workers are safe in the destination country.

Were not trying to influence what happens in Qatar, Ghimire said. Were trying to address the problematic aspect and try to empower migrant workers in a way that they could file a claim or be aware about the situation.

Training is not respected in Bangladesh either. Uddin Sikder said that the course provided by the government is false, as classes are given in a generic way, instead of in a personalized way, where each worker could learn about the work and country theyre going to be exposed to.

Uddin Sikder has also stated that, before leaving the country, each worker must sign an agreement which states the conditions of their employment. However, the information is written in a language that is not understood by the worker, without providing the option for translation.

Romanos claims that the abuse starts in the sending country, but is continued and intensified by the receiving country, where laws in place promote the term used by experts: Modern Slavery.

Qatars policies and institutions: The responsible for Modern Slavery

In Qatar, and other Gulf countries, including Jordan and Lebanon, there is a system called Kafala, which defines the relationship between the workers and their employers. With this system in place, employers, also called kafeel, have full control over their employees, by confiscating their passports and not allowing them to change jobs if they want. They are also responsible for issuing their work or residence permit, and if they fail to do so, the worker remains undocumented. If the employee leaves the workspace without the employers permission, they risk losing their legal status and potentially, face jail time or deportation. In addition, the workers are not included under labor law and dont have a standard contract. This system, together with the excessive fees and the unsuitable living conditions, is the definition of what experts consider Modern Slavery.

Since 2010, human-rights groups have pressured Qatar to change its system. With only a year until the start of the event, the government has been denying the numbers; they only link 37 deaths to World Cup preparation, and 34 of those cases are considered non-work-related.

But its not all bad news. Qatar has been making significant progress since 2017; in 2021, the government signed an agreement with the UN International Labor Organization (ILO) to tackle labor exploitation. The minimum wage is higher: before it was 750 QAR ($205USD), now it is 1,000 QAR ($274USD).

In 2018, Qatar also ended the need for an exit permit, meaning that workers can now leave the country without their employers permission, and in 2020, it ended the No-Objection Certificate requirement, allowing workers to change their jobs at will.

Unfortunately, these changes do not always trickle down: the abuse continues. Migrant workers still depend on their employers for their residency or work permits, and even though Qatar has introduced laws that set stricter penalties on employers who do not pay salaries on time, Human Rights Watch released a report showing that employers are not being monitored and that low salaries and delayed payments still occur, especially with the appearance of the pandemic. Passport confiscation, high recruitment fees and confusing recruitment practices have not been modified, and in some cases, undermine reforms done to the kafala system.

The employer takes their passport with the excuse of doing the residence permits, but they never return it, Romanos said. That makes their ability to leave the country even more difficult.

Even though there have been changes in the law, the government has still to enforce these practices.

And until these changes are enforced, the workers will continue to be deprived of their freedom, and every day abroad will be a day where their families remain fearful.

Romanos said that the responsibility lies in all involved actors: the sending countries, FIFA and the Qatari government. She claimed that the past 10 years have been useful to put Qatar on the spot to provoke changes on the system, but that these remaining 12 months are crucial as, even after the World Cup ends, Qatar will remain the home of 80 thousand migrant workers.

We talked to the wife of a worker who unexpectedly passed away in Qatar, and she claimed her husband had been sounding okay the previous days, Romanos said. They were talking on the phone one night and the next morning he didnt wake up.

Go here to read the rest:

World Cup 2022: Behind the ball Annenberg Media - uscannenbergmedia.com