According to the Foundation for Democracy, it is estimated that the FIFA World Cup held in Qatar at the end of 2022 may have resulted in the deaths of up to 16,000 migrant workers between 2010 and 2020, during the preparation for the event.
A team from this foundation traveled to Nepal last month to collaborate with three local NGOs, conducting in-depth interviews with some of the relatives of those who died in Qatar and with workers who were able to return to their home countries.
The investigation actually began in 2016, following reports of systematic abuses against migrant workers displaced to Qatar by various local human rights organizations.
Despite the efforts made over the years by numerous human rights organizations, Qatar continued to systematically violate the human rights of migrant workers during the more than a decade it took to construct the lavish structures to host the World Cup, an event for which they were unprepared in terms of existing infrastructure, as stated by Guillermo Whpei, the president of the Foundation for Democracy.
On the other hand, Qatar acknowledged at the end of November that between 400 and 500 migrant workers had died during the preparations for the tournament, specifically in the construction of stadiums, hotels, convention centers, roads, bridges, and tunnels.
While the Foundation for Democracy acknowledges that obtaining accurate data is «virtually impossible» due to the lack of transparency from the Qatari government on this issue, their records suggest that the number could reach up to 16,000.
This figure also includes migrant workers who died after returning to their home countries. In particular, authorities in Nepal recorded a significant increase in fatal cases of kidney failure among men aged 20 to 50 in the last 10 years. Many of these individuals had just returned from working in the Middle East, a situation that health experts in Nepal attribute to the strenuous work in the harsh Gulf climate, combined with the limited quantity and poor quality of drinking water.
The foundation noted an article in the Kathmandu Post from March 2021, which reported that 7,467 Nepali workers had died in their countries of employment between 2008 and 2019. It also mentioned that about 1,500 workers flew from Tribhuvan International Airport to various countries, with three of them returning in coffins.
The foundation has also collected information from other countries such as India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. Furthermore, it pointed out that the Pakistani embassy in Qatar reported 824 deaths of Pakistani workers between 2010 and 2020.
However, it should be emphasized that the total number of deaths is «significantly higher» since the statistics do not include the deaths of workers from countries that send a large number of workers to Qatar, such as the Philippines and Kenya. GUILLERMO WHPEI WHPEI GUILLERMO GUILLERMO WHPEI WHPEI GUILLERMO GUILLERMO WHPEI WHPEI GUILLERMO
