Human rights groups Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, FairSquare and Equidem on Monday accused world soccer’s governing body FIFA of continuing to fail in its human rights responsibilities by refusing to compensate migrant workers and their families for the abuses while preparing and delivering tea world cup 2022 tournament in Qatar.
The issue of labor abuses against migrant workers in Qatar has been in the spotlight since the wealthy Arab nation won the right to host the tournament in 2010. The rights groups’ statement comes as the tournament moves toward final stage.
“Since June 2022, after a coalition of organizations remedy call for migrant workers, FIFA said in a series of statements that it was committed to identifying ways to compensate migrant workers who faced deaths, injuries and rampant wage theft, and to supporting an independent center for migrant workers, as part of a program legacy,” the joint statement said.
The organizations say FIFA failed to release any plans as promised, instead announcing a new ‘Legacy Fund’ which currently does not include any provision for workers’ compensation.
Last week, the CEO of the Qatar World Cup, ” Nasser Al Khater faced criticism for saying “death is a natural part of life” when addressing the death of a migrant worker hired for repairs at a tournament facility.
The Filipino national died in a forklift accident after slipping down a ramp and hitting his head on a concrete floor, according to reports. Qatar has announced that it is investigating whether a security breach caused the accident.
“FIFA President Gianni Infantino also made misleading comments that workers can simply access compensation through an existing mechanism in Qatar when this mechanism is not in fact set up to provide compensation on a meaningful scale related to Historic deaths, injuries and wage theft. accused human rights group,” reads the statement on the HRW website.
FIFA is ready to generate $7.5 billion of this tournament.
“FIFA’s egregious cover-up of serious abuses against migrant workers in Qatar is both a global embarrassment and a sinister tactic to shirk its human rights responsibility to compensate thousands of workers who suffered abuses and the families of those who died to make possible this World Cup”. said tyrant hassaninterim executive director of Human Rights Watch.
“The Workers Insurance and Support Fund, which came into operation in 2020, has been used to compensate workers for wage theft after employers failed to pay following labor court rulings in favor of workers. .
But the fund is not currently set up to be able to provide compensation on a significant scale related to historic deaths, injuries and wage theft in the decade before it was launched.”
“FIFA also owes a public explanation as to why it went from ‘considering’ the remedy proposal to ruling it out altogether,” it added.