Qatar concerned at low-pay report

Organisers of the Qatar 2022 World Cup are concerned at a report highlighting that some migrant workers building one of the stadiums are being paid as litttle as 85 cents a day.

The report in the Guardian newspaper pointed out the low-pay issue while adding that some workers have had their passports held by the Amana Qatar Contracting Company, their employers.

The act goes against the Qatar 2022 workers charter which states that all workers should have possession of all their personal documents.

The Guardian article states that “the pay rate appears to be in breach of the tournament organisers’ own worker welfare rules and comes despite the Gulf kingdom spending £134bn on infrastructure ahead of the competition”.

In response, the Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee said that it “takes allegations of labour regulation violations very seriously. The SC is actively looking into the matters raised by the Guardian concerning the contractor Amana. Since we first bid to host the FIFA World Cup we have worked tirelessly to ensure and improve the welfare of workers and to be a catalyst for sustainable social progress”.

There is also a FIFA investigation carried out into the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. Qatar organisers have repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in the build-up to the bidding process for the tournament and are confident that it will take place in Middle Eastern country.