Hundreds of Nepalis die on World Cup projects in Qatar
Figures revealing 185 Nepalis died on World Cup building sites in 2013 published
Almost 200 Nepalese were killed building the infrastructure for the World Cup in Qatar last year, according to official documents exposing the scale of the inhumane abuse of migrant workers in the country.
The current 2013 death toll, which was revealed on Friday to be 185, was expected to rise further, piling pressure on the 2022 hosts and Fifa to act quickly to improve conditions for construction staff in the Gulf State.
At least 382 Nepalese workers have now been confirmed as having died in Qatar in the last two years, with 36 confirmed to have been killed since new allegations emerged about the plight of migrants in the country last September.
They were followed in November by the most damning report yet into abuses by employers and the Qatari government, Amnesty International's "The Dark Side of Migration". It said 539 had died between 2010 and 2013.
That suggested hundreds of migrants may have died, with tens of thousands likely to have been victims of routine abuse — and even human trafficking and forced labour — while building the infrastructure to enable Qatar to stage the World Cup.
Amnesty found many were effectively held hostage by employers and forced to work up to 14 hours a day, for months at a time without pay, in temperatures of up to 113F (45C), and without adequate access to water, safety equipment, or medical care.
Many workers' living conditions were found to be "squalid", with some sleeping up to 15 to a room in labour camps lacking electricity, running water or air conditioning, and with sewage leaking from the streets.
The report detailed claims of physical violence and blackmail, with one employer recorded referring to staff as "animals" and another accused of treating them "like cattle".
The latest figures recorded by the Pravasi Nepali Co-ordination Committee showed there were 65 deaths in June, July and August last year, ranging from road traffic accidents to blunt injuries and fractures ascribed to falls and suicide.
But more than 65 of all the deaths in 2013 were ascribed to "sudden cardiac arrests", with more than half involving some kind of heart failure.
The Amnesty report prompted Fifa president Sepp Blatter to meet with International Trade Union Confederation president Michael Sommer to agree measures to help tackle to problem of migrant worker abuse.
Qatar 2022 secretary general Hassan Al Thawadi last year vowed the tournament would not be built on "the blood of innocents", and the supreme committee said in a statement on Friday it was "committed to the wellbeing, health, safety, security and dignity of every worker".
It added: "We anticipate 2014 being a big year for the supreme committee in terms of delivery, with up to five stadiums in various stages of construction.
"We have worked hard to develop detailed workers' standards which will be enforced across all Qatar 2022 projects.
"It has been our commitment and our belief from the first day of our bid to host the Fifa World Cup that we can utilise the power of football to accelerate positive social and human development across our country and our region."
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