“6500 lifeless in Qatar”: what do we actually know concerning the deaths on the development websites of the World Cup?

This determine dates again to February 23, 2021. The Guardian then revealed an investigation with the eloquent title: “6,500 migrant employees have died in Qatar because the awarding of the World Cup.” If the testimonies compiled by this prestigious British day by day go away little doubt concerning the authenticity of the determine, it does nevertheless have a context from which it can’t be extracted. As a result of to deal with the ignorance from the Qatari authorities on the variety of victims of the development websites, the journalists of the Guardian have compiled knowledge from the embassies of Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka on their nationals who’ve died in Qatar since 2010. Which implies that this grisly toll represents the full variety of worldwide employees who’ve died over the past ten years from all causes confused. They may have died with none connection to their place of business and with out having set foot on the development websites of the World Cup.

“The determine of 6,500 deaths has been broadly reproduced by many different sources, at all times with out together with the context and particulars of the unique article, and sometimes attributing these deaths to the development of World Cup venues,” famous in response the Worldwide Labor Group (ILO), from November 2021. Requested concerning the causes for such an error, Max Tuñon, head of the ILO workplace in Doha, justifies it by an amalgam. “Some estimate that the full variety of overseas deaths who got here to work in Qatar is much like that of the one deaths on development websites. That is false. The inhabitants coming from South Asia could be very various within the nation”, and goes from the employee to the white collar. The assertion that each one employees from South Asia work in development is subsequently “offensive”, in response to our interlocutor. “The Guardian, in its article, makes these distinctions properly, presents the context. However the quantity is just not repeated with the identical precautions.”