By Guillermo Dominguez
The media ceaselessly remind us of the 6,500 employees who died within the building of the 2022 World Cup stadiums in Qatar, as revealed by The Guardian in February 2021.
A scandalous determine that contrasts with the 2 employees who died within the building of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa or the ten individuals who misplaced their lives within the building of the stadiums for Brazil 2014.
In different phrases, taking into consideration that the works of the Qatari stadiums have lasted greater than a decade —because the awarding of the World Cup to Qatar in December 2010—, the typical variety of deaths is 12 per week, all the time in keeping with the British tabloid.
However, FIFA and the organizing committee of Qatar 2022 guarantee that the demise toll is… three! “There have been three work-related fatalities and 37 non-work-related deaths,” defended Nasser Al-Khater, govt director (CEO) of Qatar 2022, who accuses the worldwide press of utilizing that determine of 6,500 deaths. so as to “create negativity” towards his nation.
Nicholas McGeehan, director of Fair/Square —one of many non-governmental organizations that has most insistently denounced the shortage of ensures for international employees in Qatar—, assures that there was “great negligence with the protection” of the employees and that “most of the deaths and injuries could have been prevented.”
Fair/Square is among the NGOs that give names and surnames to deceased employees. Heartbreaking is the case of Rupchandra Rumba, a 24-year-old Nepali who traveled to Qatar within the hope of incomes cash for his household. Deceived, he disbursed a big sum to have the ability to transfer to the Gulf nation, the place she labored for 2 months on the scaffolding of the Education City Stadium, one of many World Cup stadiums, with a really low wage.
He returned to Nepal… however he did so in a coffin: he died on June 23, 2019 of a coronary heart assault, after enduring work days of greater than 12 hours, seven days per week, with temperatures round 50 levels. The Qatari authorities included him within the “Non-Work Related Deaths” statistics and Rupchandra’s widow obtained compensation of €1,900.
Amnesty International (AI) additionally vehemently denounces what is occurring in Qatar and has launched the #PayUpFIFA marketing campaign to demand that the best physique in world soccer dedicate a part of the revenue generated by the Cup to restore and compensate migrant employees who’ve suffered unlucky circumstances.
A compensation fund that, in keeping with AI, ought to be “at least US$440 million”, which is identical quantity that FIFA allocates to collaborating groups in prizes.
WHAT IS THE KAFALA SYSTEM?
But what actually occurs in Qatar? Exorbitant recruitment charges, compelled labor in deplorable circumstances, late fee of very low wages (and even non-payment), and lengthy hours of labor with out a single break day.
It is “our daily bread” that the migrant employee has to endure inside the kafala system (“sponsorship” in Arabic), a system additionally carried out in different Middle Eastern nations (United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Lebanon and Jordan) which constitutes one of many clearest types of slavery on this planet.
This system, which has its roots within the conventional financial system of pearling within the Gulf, exploits and denigrates folks, plunging them right into a maze from which it’s troublesome to flee.
It was created at the start of the twentieth century and underwent a notable enlargement within the Fifties with the purpose of attracting international labor, granting migrants a particular standing that allowed them to work with out having to finish the complicated procedures required for a visa.
But the kafala system, whose workforce comes principally from creating nations in Southeast Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and the Philippines) and North Africa, ended up perverting over time and the bosses (kafeel) have ended up having fun with a set of authorized means to have the ability to enslave migrant employees with impunity, who want a visa to have the ability to work within the nation of vacation spot: the employer can cancel the residence allow at any time, leaving the employee as an unlawful and with the chance of being deported.
In addition, the worker can not change jobs or go away the nation with out permission from his employer, with which he finally ends up being subjected to a collection of superhuman abuses.
Another essential level in kafala is the necessity for the determine of an middleman who can acquire greater than 35% of the month-to-month wage of the employees.
Without forgetting that racism is one thing very current within the system. Proof of this are the wages of employees, which differ significantly relying on their nation of origin.
For instance, in Lebanon, Filipinos are the most effective paid with a median wage of $450 monthly, which is thrice what a Bangladeshi citizen earns on common.
In the particular case of Qatar, the nation has a inhabitants of two.6 million inhabitants, of which 1.7 million are international employees who, in fact, are included within the kafala system. Hundreds of hundreds of individuals completely unprotected because of the absence of unions, that are prohibited by legislation within the emirate.
In November 2017, the Qatari authorities made a dedication to the International Labor Organization (ILO) to abolish the kafala system and perform a collection of labor legislation reforms that have been to enter into pressure by 2022.
Among different issues, they it allowed employees to offer them with grievance channels and have a minimal wage of US$275 a month.
Five years later, Amnesty International ensures that these reforms are nonetheless not utilized within the overwhelming majority of circumstances; slavery continues to be institutionalized in Qatar, as in lots of nations within the space, whereas the emirate and FIFA proceed to fill their pockets with out disgrace.
With data from La Gaceta de la Iberosfera