Amnesty International urges FIFA to compensate Qatar’s World Cup 2022 migrant workers

Amnesty International has urged world football global governing body FIFA to fund a major compensation program for migrant workers who it says have suffered labour abuses in the preparations for the World Cup in Qatar later this year.

The human rights group has called on FIFA to allocate at least US$440 million - the amount it hands out in prize money at the World Cup - to provide remedy for the “hundreds of thousands of migrant workers who have suffered human rights abuses” in Qatar during preparations for this year’s tournament.

In an open letter sent to FIFA President Gianni Infantino, Amnesty International and a selection of other human rights groups. unions and fan groups said the governing body should work with the Government of Qatar, the International Labour Organization (ILO) and others to "establish a comprehensive programme to ensure all labor abuses to which FIFA contributed are remedied."

The letter continued “with six months until the opening of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, hundreds of thousands of migrant workers have not received adequate remedy, including financial compensation, for serious labour abuses they suffered while building and servicing infrastructure essential for the preparation and delivery of the World Cup in Qatar.

"FIFA should reserve an amount not less than the US$440 million prize money offered to teams participating in the World Cup, to be invested in funds to support remediation."

Amnesty International said the program is necessary to remedy the “litany of abuses” committed since 2010, when FIFA awarded the World Cup to Qatar “without requiring any improvement in labour protections”.

Amnesty International Secretary General, Agnès Callamard, stated “given the history of human rights abuses in the country, FIFA knew - or should have known - the obvious risks to workers when it awarded the tournament to Qatar. Despite this, there was not a single mention of workers or human rights in its evaluation of the Qatari bid and no conditions were put in place on labour protections. FIFA has since done far too little to prevent or mitigate those risks.

“Providing compensation to workers who gave so much to make the tournament happen, and taking steps to make sure such abuses never happen again, could represent a major turning point in FIFA’s commitment to respect human rights.

“By turning a blind eye to foreseeable human rights abuses and failing to stop them, FIFA indisputably contributed to the widespread abuse of migrant workers involved in World Cup-related projects in Qatar, far beyond the stadiums and official hotels.”

In response. FIFA highlighted that Amnesty International had acknowledged that some labour reforms had been undertaken in Qatar and said it, alongside Qatar's Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC), was "implementing an unprecedented due diligence process" in relation to protecting workers involved in World Cup preparations.

FIFA’s statement added that it was "currently assessing the programme proposed by Amnesty International" but that the report covered "a wide range of non-FIFA World Cup-specific public infrastructure built since 2010."

The 2022 World Cup is set to run from 21st November to 18th December this year.

Images: FIFA headquarters in Zurich (top) and FIFA President Gianni Infantino (below, credit: FIFA).