Only two of the hotel chains based in Qatar where the World Cup finals will be staged later this year have signed up to an international-standard principle that low-wage workers should not have to pay recruitment fees to gain jobs in the Gulf State.

In a survey undertaken by the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre [BHRRC], just two of the 30 hotel chains – Radisson and Kempinski - who will accommodate the estimated one million visitors expected for the tournament said that they had signed up to the “employer pays principle” [EPP].

... The EPP is part of the Dhaka Principles formulated by human rights groups ten years ago to establish basic worker rights, including the one that migrant workers should not be charged fees to secure employment...

[A Qatari] government official said: “Qatar has repeatedly said that systemic reform does not happen overnight and shifting the behaviour of every company takes time. The reality is that no other country has come so far so quickly.”

... Fifa said that it was “committed to uphold and promote the highest international labour standards for all workers [on Fifa events]”. It added that the Qatar Supreme Committee that is organising the tournament prohibits fees being paid by workers, and obliges contractors to use approved recruitment agencies. It says that as part of this commitment, and as a means of recompense, “workers have received payments of a total of $22.6 million [£19 million] as at December 2021, with an additional $5.7 million [£4.8 million] committed by contractors.”