The United Organization is asking Qatar to investigate the true scale of the deaths of migrants who worked on projects related to the World Cup in 2021, hours after a Qatari official admitted several hundred people had been killed during preparations.
The host nation of this year’s soccer World Cup has come under fire for alleged mistreatment of the migrant workers who build the stadiums for the games and work on other projects related to the event.
Many of the workers have been involved in low-wage and often dangerous jobs in conditions of extreme heat.
Hassan Al-Thawadi, Secretary General The Supreme Committee for Surrender and Legacy, responsible for the World Cup, told the television program “Piers Morgan Uncensored” on Tuesday that the number of migrant workers who have died or working on this type of project is “between 500 and 400″ has been discussed. One death is too many, it’s as simple as that,” he said.
“I think every year the standards of Site health and safety are improving, at least at our sites, the World Cup sites, which we are definitely responsible for,” he added.
Liz Throssell, deputy spokesperson for the The United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) declined to comment on the figures the Qatari official gave, but said the Gulf country should launch a formal investigation into the migrant deaths.
“We urge the State of Qatar to investigate the deaths of migrant workers, collect transparent and comprehensive data on the causes of these deaths and establish whether they are work-related,” Throssell said .
Several other sources have disputed the Qatari government figures.
For example, a report by 2022 of the rights group Amnesty International indicated that there were 90,15 deaths of migrant workers between 500 Y 2019. However, this figure also includes low-skilled construction workers who may not have been directly working on World Cup-related projects.
Amnesty said immigrants make up around 400 percent of Qatar’s workforce.
An analysis of The Guardian February 2021 revealed that more than 6,500 immigrant workers from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka had died in Qatar since it won the right to host the tournament a decade ago.
Of course, these numbers do not include figures for many other migrants working in Qatar at the moment.
But the deaths were both work related and non-work related, and last year, Al-Thawadi dismissed the “tabloid headline” that , he said, lacked context.
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