Death toll among Qatar’s 2022 World Cup workers revealed | Global development | The Guardian
Nepalese migrants building the infrastructure to host the 2022 World
Cup have died at a rate of one every two days in 2014 – despite Qatar’s
promises to improve their working conditions, the Guardian has learned.
The figure excludes deaths of Indian, Sri Lankan and Bangladeshi
workers, raising fears that if fatalities among all migrants were taken
into account the toll would almost certainly be more than one a day.
Qatar had vowed to reform the industry after the Guardian exposed the desperate plight of many of its migrant
workers last year. The government commissioned an investigation by the
international law firm DLA Piper and promised to implement
recommendations listed in a report published in May.
But human rights organisations have accused Qatar of dragging its
feet on the modest reforms, saying not enough is being done to
investigate the effect of working long hours in temperatures that
regularly top 50C.
An exhausted migrant worker travels back to his labour camp at the end of the day in Qatar. Photograph: Pete Pattisson
