A prominent international human rights watchdog revealed in its investigation on Thursday that at least 100 migrant employees of Qatar Meta Coasts (QMC), a design and construction company subcontracted to help build the Al Bayt stadium for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, were still waiting to be paid full salaries for seven months of work at the construction project
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th June, 2020) A prominent international human rights watchdog revealed in its investigation on Thursday that at least 100 migrant employees of Qatar Meta Coasts (QMC), a design and construction company subcontracted to help build the Al Bayt stadium for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, were still waiting to be paid full salaries for seven months of work at the construction project.
The cost of the tent-like stadium in the city of al-Khor is estimated at over $870 million. The venue was expected to open in 2019, but the construction is still ongoing.
"Migrant workers told us about the hardship they endured having worked without pay on Al Bayt Stadium for months on end. They are worried about their families, who rely on the money they send home from Qatar to pay school fees and medical bills," Steve Cockburn, the head of Economic and Social Justice at Amnesty International, said.
The watchdog noted that it had raised the issue with the Qatari authorities, the World Cup organizing body and the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy. Following these talks, some of the employees began to receive part of the amounts this week, but the payments have not yet been handed out in full.
Qatar's World Cup organizers have known about the salary delays since July 2019, according to the watchdog. These delays had affected all of the employees who worked at the stadium. Among those migrant workers were people from Ghana, Kenya, the Philippines and Nepal.
"This raises the question of why Qatar allowed workers to continue working for months without pay. It shouldn't take an Amnesty investigation for workers to be paid what they are owed," Cockburn said.
The situation deteriorated further in 2020, as QMC failed to fulfill its obligations and did not extend residence permits for the company's workers, putting them at risk of deportation. In January 2020, some employees submitted complaints to Qatar's Labor tribunals. Following this step, QMC representatives agreed to settle some claims but did not follow through.
By the end of February 2020, QMC had forced all remaining employees out of the stadium and asked them to report to its factory, which manufactures aluminum and steel materials for the Al Bayt stadium. They had been continuing to work at the factory without payment until March 22, when it was closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
On March 18, the FIFA 2022 World Cup organizing committee in Qatar, announced that preparations for the football championship were proceeding as planned. The Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy said that all projects were being implemented on time and that even if the fight against the virus outbreak affected the schedule it would still have time to complete the project before November 21, 2022.
