The petromonarchy has invested 220 billion dollars over the past 10 years. By way of comparison, Russia had spent 12 billion to organize the world in 2018; Brazil, 14 billion, in 2014. The other side of the coin is that those who built all this did so at the risk of their lives and their health.
One million foreign workers have been brought in since 2010, boosting Qatar’s population from 1.8 million to 2.9 million. They come mostly from India, Nepal, Bangladesh and, to a lesser extent, from East African countries.
In Nepal, colleagues found some of these workers for us. Birendra Pasman, a 35-year-old father, worked on construction sites in Qatar for four years. He was getting $300 a month. If we add the meal and housing allowances, this equates to an income of almost $500 per month.
An income that may seem miserable, but it is much more than what Birendra earned in the fields in Nepal.
« I went to Qatar because I wanted to pay for a good education for my children, so that they could become doctors or engineers. »
As an electrician’s helper, Birendra did heavy physical labor. He worked six long days a week in scorching heat, above 40 degrees during the summer months. I had to transport very heavy cables and install them, he explains. For the first three years everything was fine, then I started having pain in my leg.
Birendra injured his leg several times, but he took painkillers to continue working until he had trouble standing.
Fearing that in Qatar they would amputate his leg, he waited for his annual vacation to consult in Nepal. The doctors told me my bones were falling apart, they were damaged all over my leg
he recalls.
Surgery saved his leg, but the damage is permanent. Birendra is no longer able to work standing for long.
To build the stadiums and infrastructure for the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, one million foreign workers from Asia and Africa were brought in. Forced or unpaid labour, hellish speeds in extreme heat, Qatar will have been a trip to hell for many of them. Hundreds of workers died, and thousands more suffered permanent injuries on World Cup sites. Report by Sophie Langlois.
Anurag Devkota, a human rights lawyer in Nepal, decries the human cost being paid by those he says endure atrocious working conditions in Gulf countries and Malaysia. These migrant workers suffer permanent injuries, they can no longer work as before,
says Me Devkota, who represents the injured and families of deceased Nepalese workers.
He adds that almost half of the dialysis patients treated at the Kathmandu Kidney Center are migrant workers.
According to figures from the State of Nepal, cited by NGOs defending the rights of migrant workers, nearly 10,000 Nepalese have died since 2008 on construction sites in Qatar, other Persian Gulf countries and Malaysia.
Urmila Lodh’s husband died last January in Doha in unclear circumstances.
at 18years is that on returning from work, he ate and then went to bed. But he never woke up.”,”text”:”What I was told when he died, says the mother of four children aged 9 to 18, is that on returning from work, he ate and then he went to bed. But he never woke up.”}}”>What I was told when he died, says the mother of four children aged 9 to 18, was that on his way home from work he ate and then went to bed. But he never woke up.
Ram Narayan Lodh had worked in Qatar for eight years to support his family. His wife was very worried about his safety because he was working at heights. I was afraid, says Urmila, that he would kill himself or hurt himself by falling from a scaffolding.
Urmila Lodh’s husband, Ram Narayan Lodh, died in January in Doha, where he had worked on construction sites for eight years.
Photo : Radio-Canada
But she never feared that he would die in his sleep from cardiac arrest, which is considered by the Qatari authorities as a natural death
. This saves them from investigating the causes of death and the employer from compensating the family. Some 60% of worker deaths in Qatar are thus defined as natural deaths
.
This does not hold water, according to NGOs which defend these young workers. Me Devkota affirms that before leaving Nepal, they are certified to be in excellent health and fit to work physically in Qatar and Saudi Arabia. And suddenly they die; what, heart failure?
he said sarcastically. This worries us, because it is impossible that all these workers died of cardiac arrest.
The widow of Ram Narayan, who was only 36 years old, is convinced that the death of her husband was not natural, but linked to the working conditions on the construction sites.: he often had stomach aches. We have young children, he had gone abroad to give them a better life. In vain.”,”text”:”It was the sun, the heat that killed him. And the food, which was bad: he often had stomach aches. We have young children, he had gone abroad to give them a better life. In vain.”}}”>It was the sun, the heat that killed him. And the food, which was bad: he often had stomach aches. We have young children, he had gone abroad to give them a better life. In vain.
By sparking global outrage, the deaths of all these workers may not have been in vain. These deaths forced Qatar to enact reforms to improve working conditions on construction sites. A change that took place under the impetus of the International Labor Organization (ILO) which criticized the Qatari authorities for not analyzing the causes of these numerous unexplained cardiac arrests, so that the families receive appropriate compensation.
There have been several cases where young people have died of cardiac arrest
confirms Marie-José Tayah, responsible for social dialogue at the ILO in Qatar, joined to the organization’s Doha office. It is important to do more investigations to establish links with working conditions and [dédommager] families, if applicable.
Many of these cardiac arrests are likely caused by heat stress, which can be fatal. Qatar has indirectly acknowledged the problem by passing a law last year that banned work on construction sites from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. from June 1 to September 15. Outdoor work is also illegal when the temperature is too high, regardless of the time of day or the month of the year.
Workers inside the Lusail Stadium in Doha, during its construction for the FIFA World Cup
Photo : Reuters / KAI PFAFFENBACH
Inspections carried out under this law caused construction sites to be suspended or closed 463 times last summer. Hospital admissions of patients with heat-related disorders would have fallen from 1,520 in 2020 to 371 in 2022.
The freedom of workers to change employers or leave the country is also now protected by law, but some employers continue to retaliate against those who want to leave their jobs.
The minimum wage has been increased but it remains very low, given the wealth of the country. Payment of wages – it is not unusual in Qatar to go unpaid for months – has also improved, but remains the subject of thousands of complaints every year. Workers’ committees have been created to allow abuses to be denounced within a legally framed approach.
The small oil monarchy today boasts of having the most progressive labor laws of the Persian Gulf countries. These improvements would probably never have seen the light of day if Qatar had not hosted the FIFA World Cup.
The big question that arises today is to see if these reforms, which are still embryonic, will continue or be abandoned when the stadium lights go out, in a month.
