FIFA legacy fund shameful – Amnesty
Human rights group Amnesty says it is “shameful” that a new 2022 Qatar World Cup legacy fund does not include compensation for migrant workers harmed during preparations for the tournament.
Two years on from the event, Fifa says £39.4m of the proceeds it generated will be invested in social programmes across various regions, in collaboration with the hosts, World Health Organisation, World Trade Organisation, and the United Nations Refugee Agency.
Key priorities include occupational health, education and football development.
Fifa says the “groundbreaking” fund will support an initiative to safeguard the health and safety of workers from extreme heat in the context of climate change.
However, Amnesty insists it “does absolutely nothing for the families who lost loved ones in Qatar and were plunged into poverty as a result”.
Controversy over the human cost of building the infrastructure required for the 2022 tournament in the gulf state’s extreme summer heat has hung over the event for years.
In 2021 it was revealed that 6,500 migrant workers from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka had died in Qatar since it won its bid to host the World Cup in 2010.
The Qatari government said not all the deaths recorded were of people working on World Cup-related projects, and that many could have died from old age or other natural causes.
Before the tournament, authorities claimed there had only been three ‘work-related’ deaths on actual stadium construction sites since work began in 2014.
But during the event, organisers said the number of migrant workers who died on World Cup-related projects was “between 400 and 500”.
Qatar introduced labour reforms from 2017, with more protection for workers, a minimum wage, and the dismantling of the controversial ‘kafala’ sponsorship system, but there have been long-standing concerns over the implementation of the changes.
Despite generating a record £6bn from the World Cup, FIFA resisted calls from campaigners, players’ unions, fan representative groups and some European football federations for a £350m compensation fund for the families of workers who were injured or who had died, instead committing to a legacy fund.
In late 2022, FIFA said it “welcomed assurances” from the Qatar government in relation to an existing workers’ support and insurance fund that it said had provided hundreds of millions of pounds in compensation, external in cases mainly dealing with late and non-payment of wages.
In March 2023, FIFA also commissioned an independent report to advice on its responsibilities to migrant workers in Qatar, which is yet to be published. -BBC
