Qatar rejects a compensation fund for workers killed and injured in the preparations for the 2022 World Cup
“This request (…) for a compensation campaign is a communication strategy,” Ali bin Samij Al Marri said in an interview on Sunday.
According to the politician Qatar already has a fund for dead or injured workers. He also claimed that the country was spending hundreds of millions of dollars on unpaid wages.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch led the calls to FIFA and Qatar to create a compensation fund of 440 million dollars –the equivalent of the World Cup prizes– intended for workers.
The NGOs have regularly criticized the working conditions of the mobilized workers in the different works of the competition, planned in the rich Gulf emirate from November 20.
They also accuse Qatar of failing to properly report the number of deaths. The government rejects reports that Thousands of people have died in construction site accidents. or they have had insufficient protection conditions during the hot months.
Fifa, the institution that directs world football, assured that there was a “continuous dialogue” on the merits, but in the government’s first public comment, Marri said the proposal was unfeasible.
“Each death is a tragedy,” said the Minister of Labor, adding however that there is “no criteria to create these funds.”
“Where are the victims, do they have the names of the victims, how can they get these numbers?” he asked.
Some international union leaders also said it would be too complicated to create and manage a new fund.
Qatar created a fund in 2018 to help workers who have not been paid, which according to the minister it has shelled out $320 million this year alone.
“If there is a person entitled to compensation who has not received it, they should come forward and we will help them,” he said, adding that Qatar was willing to look into cases that are more than a decade old.
“Racist motivations”
The Gulf emirate has faced a flurry of criticism since being named host of the World Cup in 2010. The attacks intensified this year due to the conditions of migrant workers, the rights of women and the collective LGBTQ.
Last month, Qatar’s emir said the country was facing “a campaign [de críticas] without precedents”.
According to the Minister of Labor, critics do not take into account the reforms that the country has implemented since 2017 with the help of the International Labor Organization (ILO)a United Nations agency.
Other countries and groups used “false information” and “hearsay” to “discredit Qatar with deliberately misleading claims,” he said.
Some critics have also acted out of “racism,” he denounced.
“You don’t want to allow a small country, an Arab country, an Islamic country, to organize the World Cup”critical.
“They know very well the reforms that have been made, but they do not recognize them because they have racist motivations,” he alleged.
Qatar refers to the implementation of the minimum wage, the reduction of workers’ dependency on their employer, and stricter protection rules during hot summers.
The ILO said this week that unpaid wages were the biggest complaint of workers and that Qatar’s main challenge was to apply its new laws.
The Ministry of Labor is “focused” on this task, Marri assured.
During the World Cup, additional labor inspections have been ordered in hotels and other sectors and more courts have been opened to deal with complaints. 42 recruitment agencies accused of exploitation were also closed.
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