The secretary general of the organizing committee, Hassan al-Thawadi, spoke in an interview about several hundred guest workers who had died in connection with the World Cup in Qatar. “The estimate is around 400, between 400 and 500. I don’t have the exact number,” al Thawadi said in an interview with Piers Morgan for the British TV channel “Talk TV”. Morgan had asked: “Do you know how many people have died in construction work related to the World Cup in Qatar in the last 12 years since you were awarded the contract? In other words: new hotels, new bridges, what anyway. What is the realistic total number of migrant workers who have died as a result of work for the soccer World Cup?”
The organizing committee pointed out on Tuesday afternoon that al Thawadi’s statement refers to national statistics for all work-related deaths nationwide in Qatar, for all sectors and nationalities, for the period 2014-2020. That number is 414.
According to official information, there were three work-related and 37 non-work-related deaths on the stadium and other official World Cup construction sites. The organizing committee had not yet given any figures on the total number of guest workers who died in connection with the World Cup. A sensational report by the British “Guardian” in early 2021 had spoken of more than 6,500 dead foreign workers from five Asian countries in the emirate in the ten years since the World Cup was awarded in 2010. Qatar had rejected the following criticism and spoke of a normal death rate.
In the conversation, Hassan al Thawadi again referred to the reforms that have improved the conditions for workers on the World Cup construction sites in the emirate in recent years. The German Football Association and other European associations are campaigning for a compensation fund for guest workers in Qatar and for the establishment of a guest worker center in Doha.
