Building a Better World Cup

The thousands of migrant construction workers who will be building stadiums for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar risk serious exploitation and abuse, sometimes amounting to forced labor, according to a recent Human Rights Watch report.

The report, Building a Better World Cup: Protecting Migrant Workers in Qatar Ahead of FIFA 2022, examines a recruitment and employment system that effectively traps many migrant workers in their jobs. Hundreds of thousands of mostly South Asian migrant workers will face problems including exorbitant recruitment fees that can take years to pay off; employers’ routine confiscation of worker passports; and Qatar’s restrictive sponsorship system that gives employers inordinate control over their employees.

Workers’ high debts and the restrictions they face if they want to change employers often force them to accept jobs or working conditions they did not agree to in their home countries, or to continue work under conditions of abuse. Workers also face obstacles to reporting complaints or seeking redress, and the abuses often go undetected by government authorities