The Guardian view on Qatar’s World Cup: labour rights and wrongs

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/feb/27/the-guardian-view-on-qatars-world-cup-labour-rights-and-wrongs

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Qatar is one of the world’s richest countries and expects to spend more than $200bn on major infrastructure projects ahead of the 2022 World Cup. Yet it appears the wellbeing of the workers building these facilities has too often been held cheap. In October, responding to criticism, Doha promised major labour reforms including axing a system described as “modern day slavery”. But safety remains a pressing issue.

The “supreme committee” organising the event has long said it is striving to enact higher than usual welfare standards for World Cup projects. It has recorded 10 deaths since October 2015, but has classified eight of these (including three of men in their 20s) as “non-work-related”, despite immense scepticism from campaigners. On Tuesday, an inquest in Brighton examined one of the remaining deaths, of the British worker Zac Cox, who died last January after falling 40m as he installed a walkway in the roof of the Khalifa stadium in Doha. His relatives’ distress was compounded by the response when they tried to find out what had happened and why: months of silence from the Qatari authorities (broken only a week ago). Building contractors were seen to be less than helpful. Mr Cox’s relatives belatedly discovered that an investigation was carried out weeks after his death, which concluded that it was caused by the failure of the lifting equipment provided to him on site and that this equipment was known to be in poor condition. This was the conclusion of the coroner.

Yet the report – now submitted to the inquest – was never published, nor given to relatives by his employers or Qatari authorities. The family wants an independent inquiry and is urging the Foreign Office to pursue the case urgently with the Gulf state. Fifa too, which profits so handsomely from the World Cup, has a responsibility to press authorities to ensure that workers’ deaths are quickly, thoroughly and transparently investigated. Mr Cox’s relatives deserve justice and accountability. The number of workers at World Cup stadiums is expected to rise from 12,000 to 36,000 this year. The concern is that no other family should lose a loved one under similar circumstances.