Report set to reveal 400 Nepalese migrant workers' death in Qatar World Cup preparations

A report by a Nepali human rights body is reportedly set to reveal that more than 400 Nepalese migrant workers have died on Qatar's FIFA World Cup building sites as the Gulf state prepares to host the event in 2022.

The Pravasi Nepali Co-ordination Committee, which compiles lists of the dead using official sources in Doha, will pile new pressure on the Qatari authorities and on football's world governing body to curb a mounting death toll that could hit 4,000 by the time the 2022 finals take place.

According to The Guardian, the report also raises the question of how many migrant workers in total have died on construction sites since Qatar won the bid in 2010, with Nepalese workers comprising of 20 percent of Qatar's migrant workforce, which also includes workers from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

The report mentioned that a focus on the Nepalese deaths has seen FIFA and Qatar battling a PR crisis that threatens to cast a long shadow over the event although a senior FIFA official has vowed that his organisation would be carrying out 'on-the-spot visits' to ensure that workers' rights were being respected.

However, the promise, along with Qatar's new detailed guidelines addressing concerns about their employment laws, is unlikely to reassure human rights organisations and labour groups, which have raised repeated concerns about Qatar's kafala employment system, under which migrant workers are tied to their 'sponsor' employers.