400 Nepalese World Cup stadium construction workers die in Qatar

Press TV – February 16, 2014

A Nepal-based human rights organization says over 400 Nepalese workers have lost their lives on World Cup stadium construction sites in Qatar.

The Pravasi Nepali Coordination Committee (PNCC), which follows up on migrant workers deaths in Qatar, recently published lists of the dead using official sources in the Qatari capital, Doha.

The PNCC also warned that the death toll can reach 4,000 by 2022.

The report will pile new pressure on the Qatari authorities and FIFA to curb the mounting death toll of foreign workers on the building sites.

Nepalese workers make up only 20 percent of two million migrant workers in Qatar and the death toll can be much higher than this.

Migrants from other countries are also feared to have died, but there is no official data available.

Harsh working conditions for foreign laborers in Qatar first came to light last September and the deaths of at least 36 Nepalese construction workers were registered in the weeks following the September revelations.

The new death toll also sets alarm bells ringing for FIFA as it shows that global protests against the treatment of migrant workers in Qatar have fallen on deaf ears.

Last month, the PNCC said, “FIFA and the government of Qatar promised the world that they would take action to ensure the safety of workers building the stadiums and infrastructure for the 2022 World Cup. This horrendous roll call of the dead gives the lie to those reassurances.”

Migrant workers in Qatar live in extremely inhumane and sordid conditions and they are deprived of any workplace security.