Qatar has seen some of its dreams dashed as it had hoped the World Cup, which starts on Sunday, would showcase Doha as a model place to do business rather than be a magnet for bad press over unpaid wages, sweltering conditions, and contract breaches.
After a stint driving hundreds of workers back and forth from stadium construction sites in Qatar’s capital Doha, Mr. Aksar returned home empty handed.His dream of better wages, regulated work hours and decent labor laws came to naught, despite leaving home for 18 months to help turn Qatar’s arid landscape into a venue fit for 64 televised games and some 1.2 million visitors.
Labor rights campaigners say Qatar has failed workers by falling short on the reform commitments it made in order to become the first Arab country to host the tournament. Between 2016 and November 2022, her organization recorded 346 cases of abuse impacting Indian or Nepalese workers, with complaints often linked to a group of workers.
Fans of footballer Lionel Messi even installed a giant cut-out of their Argentine hero in the middle of a river in Kerala, pointing to the mounting excitement ahead of kickoff. But such jobs are a big pull, especially after the pandemic forced thousands of migrants to return home, often unpaid. “There is a lot of buzz around the World Cup, which is why people have to be more careful while looking for jobs.”In Mallapuram — a district in the Indian state of Kerala — the legacy of mass Gulf migration is omnipresent, with food stalls selling Middle East stalwarts from mandi to shawarma.
Following in the footsteps of his father, who worked as a tailor in Saudi Arabia for 27 years, Haseebudheen spent more than two years in Doha, watching the city transform pre-World Cup. “My family was worried because it had been a long time . My employer was also not good. So, I prioritized family over the World Cup and returned home,” he said.
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