According to the organizing committee, three people have died in accidents on the stadium construction sites in the World Cup host country Qatar during working hours in recent years. Fifa confirmed this a good month before the start of the tournament (November 20th to December 18th).
37 other deaths were registered, these workers did not die while working on the construction sites. The organizing committee therefore classifies these cases as “non-work-related deaths” – deaths that are not directly related to work.
In British media reports over the past few years since the award of the World Cup in December 2010, thousands of dead workers have been written to have hangovers. The emirate criticizes this depiction that the deaths are not presented in a differentiated manner and refers to numerous reforms. The Emir of Qatar Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani spoke in a televised address of the criticism of Qatar “a campaign that is expanding, includes fabrication and double standards”.
The supposed reforms have been criticized by human rights organizations. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch are also calling for the establishment of a compensation fund, which the German Football Association also supports.
DFB President Bernd Neuendorf will travel to Qatar with Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) at the end of October. “The focus of the trip is on the human rights issues that are discussed around the tournament, such as the protection of queer people from discrimination and persecution and the responsibility for migrant workers who built the World Cup stadiums,” said a spokeswoman for the Federal Minister of the Interior.
New allegations were made public by Human Rights Watch on Monday. The human rights organization accused the Gulf state of arresting and abusing queer people. Human Rights Watch documented six cases of physical violence and five cases of sexual harassment in police custody between 2019 and 2022. According to this, four transgender women, a bisexual woman and a gay man are said to have been held in an underground prison in the capital Doha. They were insulted and slapped, hit or kicked. Qatar denied the allegations.
