{"id":200571,"date":"2021-12-06T12:00:26","date_gmt":"2021-12-06T12:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=200571"},"modified":"2021-12-08T06:35:35","modified_gmt":"2021-12-08T06:35:35","slug":"pride-and-poverty-qatars-world-cup-fever-tempered-by-legacy-of-labour-abuses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2021\/12\/pride-and-poverty-qatars-world-cup-fever-tempered-by-legacy-of-labour-abuses\/","title":{"rendered":"Pride and Poverty: Qatar\u2019s World Cup Fever Tempered by Legacy of Labour Abuses"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Foreword from author Pete Pattisson<\/strong><\/em><\/h3>\n

In the summer of 2013, I spent weeks waiting outside the arrivals hall at Kathmandu\u2019s airport.<\/em><\/p>\n

As flights from the Gulf touched down, among the hundreds of returning migrant workers were coffins, bearing the bodies of young men who had paid the ultimate price in search of work overseas. Often these bodies were being flown home from Qatar, host of the 2022 football World Cup.<\/em><\/p>\n

That experience set me on a reporting journey that has taken me from gut-wrenching scenes in remote Nepali villages, as families cremated loved ones, to labour camps on the outskirts of Doha, where I interviewed men packed 12 to a room, who told me about the low wages and long hours they endured, often in the Gulf\u2019s intense summer heat. Over the years, as international criticism of Qatar\u2019s treatment of migrant workers grew stronger, the country introduced sweeping labour reforms, applauded by several international bodies, including the UN.<\/em><\/p>\n

Earlier this year I returned to Doha to see how things have changed, one year before the World Cup begins.<\/em><\/p>\n

After I arrived, I drove north through Lusail, a district of gaudy and outrageous buildings, which will host the World Cup final. In 2014 I reported that one was being built by North Koreans employed in conditions likely to constitute <\/a>forced labour, a modern form of slavery. It is now a luxury hotel.<\/em><\/p>\n

When Fifa executives step on to the asphalt in Doha next November, their next stop is likely to one of Qatar\u2019s glittering array of opulent hotels, built to provide the most luxurious possible backdrop to the biggest sporting event on earth. But behind the scenes at some of those hotels\u00a0I found migrant hotel workers claiming that they are struggling to survive on wages of \u00a31 an hour<\/a>. For them, and other migrant workers I interviewed, Qatar\u2019s labour reforms seem not to have translated into significant changes to their lives.<\/em><\/p>\n

Sitting in a park in Doha, among a group of south Asian community activists who had all worked in Qatar for more than a decade, there was a sense that next year\u2019s tournament wasn\u2019t for them<\/a>. \u201cWe built this country but they are not thinking about us workers,\u201d said one. \u201cHow can we afford World Cup tickets on our salaries?\u201d another added.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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With a Year to Go, the New Stadiums, Hotels and Roads Are Finished and Locals Are Excited, but the Low-Paid Workers Who Built Them Are Ambivalent<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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The Lusail Marina, north of Doha, Qatar.
Photograph: Pete Pattisson<\/p><\/div>\n

18 Nov 2021 – <\/em>When asked if he\u2019s looking forward to the World Cup, Mohamed, an Indian salesman, grins as he casts his fishing line off the promenade in the heart of Qatar\u2019s capital, Doha. \u201cVery much,\u201d he says. \u201cI love cricket!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

With a year to go until the football World Cup kicks off, Mohamed\u2019s response may have the event\u2019s organisers worried. After all, about 70%<\/a> of Qatar\u2019s population are from the cricket-loving subcontinent.<\/p>\n

But on a Friday evening in Aspire Park, filled with families enjoying picnics and children playing football, another Mohamed has a different take. \u201cWe\u2019re all excited and supporting the World Cup. The stadiums are amazing,\u201d says the Egyptian chemistry teacher. \u201cAll Arabs are proud. It\u2019s already a triumph!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018We Have Fallen into a Trap\u2019: Qatar\u2019s World Cup Dream Is a Nightmare for Hotel Staff<\/a><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The two Mohameds reflect the diversity and divisions \u2013 of nationality, culture and sport \u2013 in this tiny Gulf state of 2.6 million<\/a>, where 95% of the working population are foreigners.<\/p>\n

For Qataris and Arabic speakers, the overwhelming emotions appear to be pride and excitement to be hosting the first World Cup in the region. But for the low-wage workers the Guardian has interviewed, mostly from south Asia, the response is ambivalent: a mixture of a lack of interest, a focus on earning money and the knowledge that even if they wanted to watch a match, they could never afford a ticket.<\/p>\n

Qatar\u2019s diminutive size \u2013 organisers have called it the \u201cmost compact World Cup ever<\/a>\u201d \u2013 is evident on the final approach to Doha from the air. In just a few minutes you glide past Al Bayt Stadium, then the Lusail Stadium comes into view, like a giant wicker basket, and as the landing gear is lowered you pass by Ras Abu Aboud, a stadium made partly of shipping containers, which will be dismantled after the event.<\/p>\n

The view from above also reveals Qatar\u2019s monumental ambition and wealth: seven stadiums, a new airport, roads, a metro system and hundreds of hotels. In 2017, Qatar\u2019s finance minister said the country was spending $500m a week<\/a> on World Cup-related construction.<\/p>\n

The furthest stadium from Doha \u2013 just a 30-minute drive away \u2013 is Al Bayt, a graceful structure designed like a nomadic tent. The only other building in sight is a McDonald\u2019s, built in the same style as the stadium.<\/p>\n

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Al Bayt Stadium in the city of Al Khor, one of seven new stadiums built for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Photograph: Mohamed Farag\/Fifa\/Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n

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Touchy guards stand in the shade and shout at you if you try to take a photo. One says he has no interest in the World Cup, he is just here to make money. \u201cI can be standing guard here beside the stadium or over in that town, it doesn\u2019t make any difference to me,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019ll leave before the World Cup. During the event we\u2019ll have far too much work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sitting in a park in Doha, a group of south Asian community activists who have all worked in Qatar for more than a decade are similarly ambivalent. \u201cWhen I came to Qatar there was nothing here. We built this country but they are not thinking about us workers,\u201d says one. \u201cHow can we afford World Cup tickets on our salaries?\u201d adds another.<\/p>\n