QATAR WORLD CUP IN DOUBT FOLLOWING REPORTS OF 6,500 WORKER DEATHS

Featured Image Credit: FIFA

The first date of the European World Cup qualifiers, in addition to football, left images of strong protest by national teams against the Qatar 2022 organization, due to recently revealed reports of approximately 6,500 deaths of immigrants from 5 Asian countries, related to infrastructure work for the 2022 World Cup.

“Human rights, on and off the pitch” was the phrase in the jersey that the Norway national team wore before their match.

For the Qatar 2022 World Cup, investments were made to improve or directly build stadiums, hotels and even a whole new city in addition to improving different infrastructure aspects of the cities involved in the tournament, such as airports or public transport.

The workforce mostly made up of immigrants, about 2 million workers from Pakistan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, among others, moved to Qatar to work in different areas within construction for the World Cup.

According to statistics from their own governments or embassies, the death sum would amount to 6,500 workers from the 5 countries mentioned above. This figure could be even higher, given that there are no strong statistics from countries that also send a large number of workers to Qatar, such as the Philippines and Kenya.

In addition to the loss of human beings and the sadness they caused to large numbers of families, the lack of information and research in most deaths is really worrying.

The main causes of death are reportedly varied, with reports suggesting deaths may have been related to: the lack of adequate elements to carry out their work, unhealthy environments to rest between shifts and non-compliance with basic needs such as water and food.

Through a spokesman, the Qatari government has stated that it always maintained transparency regarding deaths in them projects, but it is not yet clear why there are "apparently natural" deaths that were never properly investigated, no autopsies have been done on it, and no real reason has been given why they continue to be repeated.

The future regarding Qatar 2022 is uncertain, the demands of footballers has generated a great movement in the world of sport and it is inevitable that, seeing the instability of Qatar's organization, different countries want to take responsibility for organizing the next World Cup.

While more football claims are expected in the future, the organising committee of the world's most important sporting event will need to thoroughly investigate the deaths that have occurred.