Qatar slammed for 'weak' response to workers' deaths in 2022 World Cup preparations

International bodies have criticised Qatar's response to the report on migrant workers death during 2022 FIFA World Cup preparations as 'extremely weak and disappointing'.

Qatar had reportedly promised a crackdown on private building companies allegedly exploiting migrant workers, including Nepalese and Indian, following an investigation by a reputed British newspaper that revealed the deaths of an alarming numbers of labourers in the building boom prior to the World Cup.

However, the Gulf News reports that there is still concern that Qatar's labour ministry may not be in full control of the pre-World Cup building programme and that the separate Qatar 2022 supreme committee is more influential.

Criticising Qatar's response, International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) said that the promised raids and checks did nothing to abolish the Qatari system, which strips migrant workers of their passports, making them powerless to complain about conditions and traps them in Qatar.

The ITUC called for laws to protect workers' rights to join a union, bargain and refuse unsafe work, saying that only then can inspectors do their job, while the New York-based Human Rights Watch said that Qatar needs to be prepared to criminally sanction Qatari employers and end the 'kafalah' system, which binds workers to an employer.