The boss of the International Football Federation, Gianni Infantino, has promised to abound a support for migrant workers in Qatar. NGOs fear that the latter will never see the light of day.
by Benjamin Barthe
Chance of calendar: The final of the Qatari World Cup, Sunday December 18 at the Lusail stadium, coincides not only with the National Emirate Day, but also with the International Migrant Day. If the first of these concordances was wanted by the organizers of the competition – what could be better than a stadium of 80,000 places to stage the ascent of Qatar on the international scene? -, the second is perfectly involuntary, and can be a bit moved.
Because the Football World Cup ends without the compensation fund promised by the International Football Federation (FIFA) for migrant workers since June having been created. In his famous Tirade of November 19, on the eve of the opening of the competition, during which he had stigmatized “the moral lessons” of Westerners, the boss of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, had reiterated this commitment, suggesting That “a percentage of the profits of the World Cup”, estimated at $ 1 billion (940 million euros), would be released. A project defended by a coalition of human rights NGOs, in order to compensate the “thousands of workers” whose rights were trampled on during the preparation of the World Cup as well as the families of those who died on construction sites .
“But since this press conference, nobody has offered us a specific plan, is indignant Paola Cammilli, project manager at the Building and Wood World International (BWI), the International Federation of BTP Unions. Infantino Marmonized something, but no one understood what he meant. “Journalists preparing to leave Doha and the media pressure exerted on Qatari power being about to fall back, it is to be feared that this project never see the day. “The workers are afraid, says Paola Cammilli. They fear a return of stick once everything is finished.”
the non-payment of wages, a common practice
In 2020, the year when the Qatari authorities finally agreed to reform their labor code, after a long lobbying of NGOs, a workers’ support and insurance fund, instituted two years earlier, became operational. His mandate: reimburse the migrants injured by their employer, after they obtained a court decision in their favor. In the space of three years, according to the Qatari Ministry of Labor, this fund has paid $ 350 million. In June 2022, no less than 37,000 foreign employees in Qatar would have benefited. Two figures which demonstrate how much the non-payment of wages is a widespread practice in the emirate.
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