The World Cup in Qatar has been "
treated unfairly and scrutinized
" for years, lamented its executive director on Saturday, lashing out at critics, amid widespread criticism of human rights violations in the country.
"
Qatar has been treated unfairly and scrutinized for years,
" Nasser Al-Khater told the media, a year and a day from the start of the competition.
The boss of the organization of the World Cup-2022 (November 21 - December 18) explained that Qatar had not benefited from enough credit in relation to the labor reforms undertaken to improve the working conditions of its workers from immigration, mainly from Asia.
According to Qatari authorities, three people have died since 2014 in accidents at World Cup-related venues, and 39 others have lost their lives in “
non-work
”
incidents
.
The International Labor Organization (ILO) released figures on Friday, reporting 50 immigrant workers dead in Qatar in 2020, and more than half a thousand seriously injured.
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The report unveiled by the ILO also highlights the existence of differences in data collection, and recommends more investigations into deaths considered to be non-work-related.
In February, Doha fiercely denied reports from the British daily The Guardian that more than 6,500 immigrant workers have died in Qatar since 2010.
“
There are criticisms, yes, but the job has to be done.
Despite everything, there is a lot of progress,
”continued Nasser Al-Khater.
Nasser Al-Khater, head of the organization of the Mondial-2022 Panoramic
The Gulf emirate has announced several reforms since the award of the World Cup in 2010, including the introduction of a minimum wage and the possibility of changing employers more easily.
But their implementation is long overdue, according to critics.
“
The number of advances made in the last seven, eight, nine years is quite extraordinary.
But unfortunately people don't like to talk about it,
”said the Qatari leader.
Several European selections have highlighted the plight of immigrant workers in Qatar during qualifying for the World Cup, and this theme was also raised by F1 world champion Lewis Hamilton during the Qatar Grand Prix this week.
More than two million foreigners work in Qatar, a large part of whom are employed directly or indirectly for the vast projects related to the World Cup.
