A Bleak Look at the Life of Migrant Workers Building Qatar’s World Cup
Found at Gizmodo.
Here are just a few of the most horrific facts of life for migrant workers at a camp a half-hour drive from Doha, Qatar’s largest city:
No access to toilets or clean water: “There was an overpowering smell of excrement as we arrived. There were no Western-style toilets but holes in the floor. Others washed themselves using buckets of water. Salty water was used for drinking and washing.”
According to a labor representative, employees are more likely to die from heart attacks or heat stress than industrial accidents: “He said men as young as 25 were dying from heart attacks because of their working and living conditions.”
The workers are trapped due to Qatar’s kafala system: “Workers cannot change jobs or leave the country without their boss’s permission. Some revealed that their employers had not paid them for months but they could not change jobs. Many have not seen their families for years.”
And perhaps the most depressing fact: Per capita, Qatar is the richest nation on earth.
And a link to MP Jim Murphy from the Sunday Mail Scotland reporting from Doha.
As we Americans constantly are reminded, more of the rest of the world plays soccer than we play any other sport combined. So where is the world’s outrage over this?