Hassan al-Thawadi, secretary-general of Qatar’s Supreme Committee for Delivery and Inheritance, admitted in a television interview this week that there were “between 400 and 500” migrant deaths in reaction to a query on deaths “over the past 12 years. “years since any similar construction. . . at the World Cup. This is a surprising admission through a Qatari official.
Authorities have long maintained that there were only “three work-like deaths and 37 non-work-like deaths” at the stadiums, which al-Thawadi reiterated earlier in the same interview. This popularity inadvertently admits to evidence that staff cared to prepare. The Cup’s infrastructure includes not only those who built stadiums and shape less than two percent of Qatar’s migrant workforce, but also the staff who built hotels, metros, airports and other infrastructure similar to the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
There is transparent evidence of thousands of migrant workers dying in the run-up to the World Cup. Authorities have not conducted significant investigations into a giant percentage of them, classifying many as unexplained or due to “natural causes. “Thawadi’s comment that an exact death toll is “something that is under discussion” inadvertently admits what critics have claimed: that Qatar’s government has a wealth of information about employee deaths and other abuses, but does not need to disclose it publicly. of the outrage they would most likely create. Qatar’s own statistics show that 15,021 non-citizens died between 2010 and 2019, but without disaggregating by age, profession and cause.
Al-Tawadi’s claim that “one dead user is too many” also rings hollow. Qatar’s government has rejected a widely backed payment fund for families of deceased staff whose deaths are classified as “natural causes” without proper investigation. Lately, many families can’t claim reimbursement from employers, which they can only do if they are classified as work-related deaths. Research has shown that FIFA and Qatar have failed to sufficiently protect staff from excessive heat, and this failure has particularly increased protection hazards for migrant staff.
In fact, one death is too many, but there are thousands of deaths of migrant personnel that remain unexplained, uninvestigated and uncompensated. Some families are not even officially informed of the death of their loved ones or their condolences. This legacy of death and misfortune is to compensate the families of deceased staff and staff who have suffered serious abuse.