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Migrant workers arrive to watch World Cup final
STORY: One was in the Asian Town Cricket Stadium, while a second, adjacent fan zone was next door.The tournament, the first to be held in the Middle East, where other countries have also faced criticism over migrant workers’ rights, has been mired in controversy with some soccer stars and European officials criticising Qatar’s human rights record, including on labor.Britain’s Guardian reported last year that at least 6,500 migrant workers – many of them working on World Cup projects – had died in Qatar since it won the right to stage the World Cup in 2010, according to the paper’s calculations from official records.In response, Qatar said that the number of deaths was proportionate to the size of the migrant workforce, and included many non-manual workers, adding that every life lost was a tragedy.Hassan Al Thawadi, the secretary general of Qatar’s Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, said in a TV interview with British journalist Piers Morgan that aired on November 30 that the number of migrant worker deaths at World Cup-related projects was “between 400 and 500.”Qatar has changed its labor laws to dismantle much of its “kafala” sponsorship system, absolving workers of the need to get the permission of the employer who sponsored their visa in order to change jobs or leave the country.It has also set up an insurance fund to help migrants that have been cheated of their wages.