Terrifying numbers: Over 6,500 people died during construction work for the Qatar World Cup

 The  “Guardian” reports terrifying numbers. More than 6,500 guest workers from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka died as part of the preparations for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar from 2010 to 2020. Among other things, the Pakistani embassy in Qatar alone recorded 824 dead guest workers from their country during this period.

Even more frightening: According to the British newspaper, the numbers are still too low to reflect reality. Although they contain the deaths from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka, information from Kenya or the Philippines is completely missing.  The  deaths in 2020 are also missing.

According to the Guardian, deaths are not differentiated in the statistics by workplace. But it is likely that the deceased were employed on a World Cup construction site, said Nick McGeehan, an expert on labor law in the Gulf. He made it clear: “A very large proportion of the guest workers who have died since 2011 were only in the country because Qatar won the World Cup.” 37 deaths can also be directly attributed to the construction sites of the World Cup stadiums.

 The  report cites injuries as causes of death, for example, in which workers fell from a height or strangled, or collapsed with cardiovascular failure. Another reason is the lack of hygiene, safety and cleanliness in the narrow living quarters in which the guest workers are crammed together. Eight people in a few square meters are everyday life in Qatar.  The  living conditions are therefore unworthy.

“We deeply regret all of these tragedies and have investigated each incident to ensure that lessons were learned. We have always maintained transparency in this matter and deny inaccurate claims about the number of workers who died in our projects, ”said the World Cup organizing committee when asked by the newspaper. And what about Fifa?  The  announces that you are fully committed to protecting the rights of workers in Fifa projects. “ The  frequency of accidents on the construction sites of the Fifa World Cup has so far been low compared to other large construction projects in the world.” However, FIFA did not name any evidence for this claim.