More than 6,500 migrant workers from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have died in Qatar while working on that nation’s preparation for hosting the 2022 World Cup soccer tournament, the Guardian reports.
Since 2010, when Qatar was awarded the games, an average of 12 migrant workers per week have died while working on the construction of soccer stadiums and other infrastructure projects. According to the report, this includes 2,711 workers from India, 1,641 from Nepal, 1,018 from Bangladesh, 824 from Pakistan and 557 from Sri Lanka.
The overall figure is likely higher given that the data are only from the five countries listed and encompass only workers directly connected to the construction process. Causes of death range from electrocution, blunt force trauma from construction accidents, suicide, road accidents and “natural causes.”
Qatar is highly dependent on migrant labor. The nation has just 3 million citizens, but has 2 million resident foreign workers. The workers come largely from Southeast Asian countries, and human rights agencies have long decried the conditions under which the migrants work. In most cases, Qatari nationals are not held accountable for the deaths of workers or are given cursory punishments like fines.