The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) has published a highly critical report of workers’ labour rights in Qatar, calling it a “country without a conscience”.

The report - The Case Against Qatar -provides damning evidence of working conditions in the country and calls on FIFA to make respect for international labour rights a condition of Qatar hosting the World Cup in 2022.

The report found poor migrant workers were living in squalor and forced to work long hours in unbelievable heat six days a week. The ITUC has estimated that 4000 workers could die before a ball is kicked in the 2022 World Cup.

It also found foreign workers enslaved under the “kafala system”, which means they are owned by employers who hold the power of recruitment, total control over wages and conditions of employment, and the ability to refuse a change of employment or an exit visa to leave the country.

As FIFA has the power to put conditions on the right to host the 2022 World Cup, that can make the difference to the lives of these workers, the ITUC has written to both FIFA and the Qatar authorities calling for:

  • an end to the kafala system and the right of workers to have a collective voice through freedom of association
  • the use of ethical recruitment companies
  • a non-discriminatory minimum wage, and
  • a compliance system that is fast, independent and has appropriate power for sanctions.

TUC General Secretary, Frances O’Grady said: “Working conditions are so bad in Qatar that on average one construction worker is dying out there every day. FIFA should no longer be listening to the assurances of the authorities that all is well with the World Cup workforce in Qatar. Its executives need to look at the evidence in the ITUC report and they will see that ill-treatment and squalor is widespread.

“FIFA has the power to make Qatar clean up its act and do so quickly. If the organisers of the 2022 World Cup show no sign of acting to improve the lot of its thousands of migrant workers, then FIFA must consider a re-run of the vote and moving the tournament elsewhere in the world.”

Neil Todd at Thompsons Solicitors said: “Given the findings of the ITUC report, there is now an overwhelming case for decisive action to be taken on behalf of migrant workers in Qatar. Whilst FIFA is not a lawmaker in Qatar it does have the ability to lever pressure on the Qatar authorities to ensure migrant workers are protected and are not forced to live and work in inhumane conditions.”

To read the report, go to: http://www.ituc-csi.org/IMG/pdf/the_case_against_qatar_en_web170314.pdf