Fake Qatari investments to buy Katmandu’s silence over the deaths of its workers in Doha

Ali Ragab

A report by a group of journalists from the German WDR1 channel revealed Qatar’s crimes against foreign workers – particularly from Nepal – constructing football stadiums as part of Qatar’s preparations for the World Cup 2022. Nepal has suffered the most number of casualties, but Doha has sought to buy Katmandu’s silence with funds and fake investments.

According to a German report published on June 5, 2019, Qatar has about 2 million foreign workers – whom Doha calls cheap labor –building the stadiums in preparation for the next World Cup in Qatar. As a result of inhumane conditions, 1,426 Nepalese workers have died between 2009 and 2019, including 522 workers who died of sudden heart attacks, according to the Nepalese authorities.

The Nepalese workforce in Qatar is estimated at about 400,000 workers who participate in infrastructure projects and major projects in various fields.

The Nepalese government has proposed amendments to the agreement signed between it and Qatar 13 years ago on sending workers to Doha.

These amendments have opened the door to severe restrictions on Nepalese workers traveling to Qatar, especially in light of the reports that they constitute the majority of victims of forced labor prevailing in various service sectors in Doha. This led to Doha to declare establishing a visa center in Katmandu in order to maintain the agreement.

In October 2018, Nepalese President Bidhya Devi Bhandari visited Doha in the context of Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Khalifa’s keenness to buy the silence of the Nepalese government through investments and formal and informal deals.

During the Bhandari-Tamim meeting, a memorandum of understanding was signed in the field of agriculture and food security aimed at supporting agricultural development, cooperation between the two countries, and a visa cancellation agreement for holders of diplomatic, private and official passports. However, according to Nepalese media, these agreements have yet to be achieved.

The media described Qatar’s government as selling the illusion to the Nepalese people to silence the victims of the World Cup stadium construction sector, asking the Bhandari government to stop sending Nepalese labor to a holocaust.

In an article titled “Nepalese in Qatar”, the newspaper Katmandu Post said migrant workers are living under a system of exclusion and isolation without any protection of human rights. The reason for institutional mistreatment and the exploitation of Nepalese and other migrant workers lies in part in the vision of the Qatari regime and civil society, which sees immigrants from relatively developing countries with strong racial disdain and prejudice.

The Nepalese newspaper reported that the lack of employment in Qatar intensified after FIFA decided to organize the 2022 World Cup in Doha, and the Nepalese – mostly unskilled workers – quickly filled the gap, constituting the largest group of migrant workers in the country.