The London-based Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC) has published a report that highlights ‘deplorable’ living and working conditions experienced by migrant workers while in Qatar...

According to the workers’ testimony, exploitative recruitment practices were rife: 93% said they paid illegal or extortionate amounts to obtain work and two-thirds were indebted to banks, family and friends to cover the cost.

Migrant workers were also forced to endure appalling working conditions. Fifty-eight of the 78 interviewed reported wage theft, 36 of the 69 who worked overtime were not paid for it, 45 found themselves on different contracts than originally promised and 27 were paid lower wages than had been agreed.

Despite key labour law reforms in Qatar ahead of the World Cup, including the abolition of the exploitative Kafala system, implementation has been inconsistent and promised improvements for migrant workers have remained minimal, said BHRRC...

BHRRC says the testimony published in its report shows that companies systematically failed to engage directly with workers to understand and mitigate the risks they were facing...

In a response to the BHRRC report, FIFA issued a statement saying that it had “taken note of the information collected by the BHRRC and its partners on human and labor rights in the context of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.

“In line with FIFA’s human rights policy and article 3 of the FIFA statutes, FIFA is firmly committed to uphold and promote internationally recognised human and labour rights standards for all workers involved in the FIFA World Cup 2022.”