Geneva human rights summit to discuss Qatar’s labor violation

Indiana Khaled

Despite its propaganda about freedoms and human rights, Qatar’s ugly face has been exposed on the backdrop of a number of labor violations and exploitation of workers in preparations for the FIFA World Cup 2022.

The 12^th Annual Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy has sent a letter to Qatar for discussing accusations of enslaving workers of various nationalities, labor violations and nonpayment of wages for months.

More than 1,200 migrant workers died while building sports facilities, in scorching heat, for hosting the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

An International Labor Organization report has said that most of the people working in the construction of stadiums for the FIFA  2022 World Cup come from the world’s poorest countries. The report said that Qatar takes advantage of their poverty by enslaving them.

“Qatar has passed some laws to protect migrant workers, but the authorities seem more interested in promoting these minor reforms in the media than in making them work,” said HRW’s deputy Middle East director Michael Page.

In October 2013, The Guardian newspaper said that 44 Nepalese workers had died within two months due to working in severe conditions.

The International Federation of Trade Unions expected that 4,000 workers would die in preparations for the FIFA World Cup ahead of its opening in 2022.

Abdel Ghaffar Shukr, deputy head of the National Council for Human Rights, said that the possible sanctions on Qatar on the back of such investigation may call off Qatar’s scheduled hosting of the FIFA World Cup 2022, citing Doha’s continued violations of foreign labor rights.

“The Geneva summit for human rights will be a warning to Doha to review its labor regulations. Most importantly, the work conditions should be appropriate in terms of temperature, regular wage payment, rest and human housing,” Shukr told THE REFERENCE.