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date: 30 May 2011
embargo: 00.01hrs Tuesday 31 May 2011
A new report uncovering the treatment of migrant workers in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates is being published today (Tuesday) by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) in Brussels.
With 12 new football stadiums to be built for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, the ITUC will use the report to press FIFA and Qatar 2022 to improve the working conditions of migrant workers.
The report details the working and living conditions of the mainly Indian, Pakistani and Nepalese workers in the gleaming cities of Doha and Dubai. Including interviews with workers and human rights activists, the report describes the appalling living conditions of the workers in huge segregated mostly male townships.
The ITUC is writing to FIFA President Sepp Blatter and Qatar's FIFA delegate, construction magnate Mohamed Bin Hammam, calling for the organisations to explain how they will protect the hundreds of thousands of workers who will be subject to unsafe and unregulated working conditions on construction sites, with no independent unions or effective safety inspection.
FIFA requires football manufacturers to respect workers' rights in its licensing programme, but has no such standards for companies building World Cup venues.
The ITUC is also writing to the Labour Ministers of both Qatar and the United Arab Emirates seeking face-to-face meetings during the ILO conference, which starts tomorrow (Wednesday 1 June) in Geneva.
TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: 'Hundreds of thousands of migrant workers with very few employment rights, no access to unions, no health and safety protection, and forced to live in inhumane conditions, will be literally putting their lives on the line to deliver the 2022 World Cup. It's time FIFA cleaned up its act and took action now to protect these workers."
NOTES TO EDITORS:
- The ITUC report is available at www.ituc-csi.org/IMG/pdf/VS_QatarEN_final.pdf
- All TUC press releases can be found at www.tuc.org.uk
- Register for the TUC's press extranet: a service exclusive to journalists wanting to access pre-embargo releases and reports from the TUC. Visit www.tuc.org.uk/pressextranet
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