With Qatar hosting the 2022 FIFA World Cup, there
country has come under the incredible spotlight that comes with the honour of
hosting the world cup. With this honour comes the test of your nation, and
Qatar have been found in a recent investigation by the British Daily. That the foreign migrant labourers have been
mistreated in their efforts on the construction sites associated with the 2022
World Cup.
Nandita Baruah, an expert analyst on labour
migration at the Asia Foundation states when asked that there is much
improvement needed to help the working conditions of these workers. Recently this
investigation by the Daily has found
that Dozens of migrant workers have died in the past couple months whilst
working on the World Cup construction sites. According to Baruah there needs to
be huge structural and systemic changes by the Qatari government in order to
protect these workers and to improve their living, working conditions.
The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) has
found that 1.2 million labourers in the Emirates of Qatar are and have been
facing abuse and exploitation. Nepal and Bangladeshi migrant workers have found
mistreatment in the middle-eastern countries.
One of the other interesting stories out of this is
that many countries on the Gulf have the same issue in terms of migrant workers
being treated unfairly, but the World Cup has put the spotlight on the issue
for Qatar which is a good thing to help these people.
One of the challenges with this issue is that there
contract issues, average to no medical care, payment issues, long working hours
and terrible working conditions on top of physical and mental abuse by the
contractors. Compounding these problems, migrants returned home prior to their
contract date due to poor health, and were never able to pay off the loan, a
vast majority of workers left with a greater debt than they came with on top of
poor health.
The greater the exposure for this issue, the greater
the nation will feel the need to improve the standards for these workers. The countries
involved need to stand up and say something in order for our human morality to
be kept if we are to compete in those stadiums built under these conditions.
James Dougherty
9:12pm
10/10/13
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