The number in Qatar will rise, since there is still a long time until 2022. It is estimated that more than 4000 workers will die before a football player sets foot in a stadium in Qatar.
Companies to boycott: Visa, Adidas, Coca-Cola
http://www.ibtimes.com/fifa-2022-world-cup-sponsors-visa-adidas-coca-cola-concerned-over-qatars-labor-1932365 sorry but concerned is not enough when thousands are dying. Boycott these companies until they retreat their sponsorship and we have a chance that the Worldcup in Qatar is canceled, and we save some lives.
Online petitions to support
Why France, UK and Germany dance to the tune of Qatar
France enjoys a privileged partnership with one of Iran’s main competitors, namely Qatar. Under Nicolas Sarkozy’s presidency, Emir Hamad Ben Khalifa al-Thani was the first Arab State leader to be received at the Elysées Palace in 2007. It is now François Hollande who continues this special relationship. Since his election, Qatar is the country which was received the most at the Elysées with a visit of the Emir on August 22 and two more discreet visits of Prime Minister Hamad bin Jasem al-Thani.
This economic power invests billions in real estate, in the capital of CAC 40 companies (such as Total, Vivendi, Veolia, Lagardère, Suez, LVMH or even Bouygues and Vinci for the different sites of the world to the Qatar 2022 and also the construction of the Friendship Bridge between Qatar and Bahrain), sport (with the purchase of the Parisian club PSG — soccer and handball), the media (
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French footballer in Qatar (worlds richest country and host of the 2022 worldcup) not paid for 2 years, and prevented from leave the country
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/nov/13/french-footballer-claims-prevented-leaving-qatar
Fifa‘s president, Sepp Blatter, has been asked to intervene in the case of French footballer Zahir Belounis, who says he is being prevented from leaving Qatar in a contractual dispute with a local club.
The international players union, Fifpro, has written to Blatter saying that it remains “deeply concerned about Belounis’s precarious situation”, and called for action.
It said Belounis, 33, is stranded in Qatar, with his wife and two daughters, and being denied an exit visa until he agrees to drop a legal case against his former club, Al-Jaish, over his claim of almost two years’ unpaid wages.
In a personal letter to Blatter, Fifpro’s secretary general, Theo van Seggelen, calls for Fifa’s urgent intervention.
Van Seggelen said: “Fifpro insists that Belounis be allowed to leave Qatar and receive his wages immediately.”
The club, it said, then put him under pressure to terminate his contract and sign a document confirming he was owed nothing by them. Belounis refused, concerned that his signature would invalidate any claim.
In Qatar – controversial hosts of the 2022 World Cup – an employee is unable to leave the country without an exit visa which the employer has to obtain.
Qatar detained two Germans who filmed World Cup labour conditions
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/14/qatar-detained-two-germans-world-cup
Two German broadcasters have said they were detained by Qatari police this month as they attempted to investigate the plight of migrant labourers building infrastructure for the 2022 World Cup.
Peter Giesel, a film-maker and the head of a Munich-based production company, and his cameraman Robin Ahne were detained for 27 hours after filming the working conditions of labourers from the balcony of the Mercure Grand hotel in Doha.
The pair were following up on the Guardian’s investigation into the conditions endured by many of the 1.2 million migrant workers who have flooded into the country to fuel a £100bn-plus construction boom before the football tournament.
“But the interrogations went on for several hours and then the security police got involved. They were talking about us sparking a riot by talking to the workers … and that’s why we got detained and put in jail.”
International trade unions said up to 4,000 workers could die before a ball is kicked in 2022 if nothing was done to improve conditions for the workers, many of whom are heavily in debt and tied to their employers by law.
…Last week an 18-strong delegation from the Building and Wood Workers’ International union claimed they had been denied access to a construction site when they stopped as part of a surprise inspection visit.
How many more must die for Qatar’s World Cup?
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/21/qatar-human-rights-sport-cohen
“More workers will die building World Cup infrastructure than players will take to the field,” predicts Sharan Burrow,general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation.
Qatar’s absolute monarchy, run by the fabulously rich and extraordinarily secretive Al Thani clan, no more keeps health and safety statistics than it allows free elections. The Trade Union Confederation has had to count the corpses the hard way. It found that 83 Indians have died so far this year. The Gulf statelet was also the graveyard for 119 Nepalese construction workers. With 202 migrants from other countries dying over the same nine months…
How to characterise them? “Absolute monarchy” does not begin to capture a society such as Qatar, where migrants make up 99% of the private sector workforce. Apartheid South Africa is a useful point of reference. The 225,000 Qatari citizens can form trade unions and strike. The roughly 1.8 million migrants cannot.
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In order to leave Qatar, migrants must obtain an exit visa from their sponsor. This stipulation means that they can be held hostage if they threaten to sue over a breach of contract.
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It is not just poor construction workers who suffer. One might expect that Fifa would have been concerned about the fate of foreign footballers working under kafala contracts. Abdeslam Ouaddou, who once played for Fulham, has warned players not to go near Qatar. He said that if a player is injured or his form drops, the club can break his contract. If the player goes to lawyers, the club (as “sponsor”) can refuse to let him leave the country until he drops his case.
Ouaddou got out of Qatar after much tortuous negotiation. But French player Zahir Belounis, a former captain of the team Al-Jaish, is trapped in the country with his family and hasn’t been paid for two years. When he went to the international press, he was threatened with defamation proceedings.
Qatar World Cup construction ‘will leave 4,000 migrant workers dead’
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2013/sep/26/qatar-world-cup-migrant-workers-dead
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Qatar‘s construction frenzy ahead of the 2022 World Cup is on course to cost the lives of at least 4,000 migrant workers before a ball is kicked, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) has claimed.
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The annual death toll among those working on building sites could rise to 600 a year – almost a dozen a week – unless the Doha government makes urgent reforms, it says.
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Workers described forced labour in 50C heat, employers who retain salaries for several months and passports making it impossible for them to leave and being denied free drinking water. The investigation found sickness is endemic among workers living in overcrowded and insanitary conditions and hunger has been reported.
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Without changes to working practices, more workers will die building the infrastructure in the runup to the World Cup than players will take to the field, the ITUC has warned. “Nothing of any substance is being done by the Qatar authorities on this issue,” said Sharan Burrow.
The stark warning came after a Guardian investigation revealed that 44 Nepalese workers died from 4 June-8 August this year, about half from heart failure or workplace accidents.
The Indian ambassador in Qatar said 82 Indian workers died in the first five months of this year
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The ITUC’s own analysis of deaths this summer appears to tally with the Guardian’s investigation. It found that 32 Nepalese workers died in July, many of them young men in their 20s.
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It is estimated that Qatar, the world’s richest country by income per capita, is spending the equivalent of £62bn from its gas and oil wealth on building transport infrastructure, hotels, stadiums and other facilities ahead of the World Cup.
“Fifa needs to send a very strong and clear message to Qatar that it will not allow the World Cup to be delivered on the back of a system of modern slavery that is the reality for hundreds of thousands of migrant workers there today,” said Burrow.
Some facts about Qatar
http://www.theguardian.com/global/2013/jun/25/qatar-12-things-you-need-to-know
Depending on how you calculate it, Qataris are either the richest or the second-richest people in the world. According to 2010 figures, if you say that US citizens have a purchasing power of 100, then we in the UK have 75.7 (26th overall). Qataris have 187.1.
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Criticising the emir is a crime written into the constitution. A new constitution in 2005 was supposed to guarantee press freedom, but last year the regime was still happy to sentence a poet, Muhammad ibn al-Dheeb al Ajami, to life in prison (later commuted to 15 years) for daring to poke fun at them.
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By most calculations, Qataris are by far the largest per capita emitters of carbon dioxide in the world, with each person accounting for an estimated 49.1 tonnes in 2008. That compares with 18 tonnes each in the US, and 8.5 in the UK.
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The country was a member of the Nato intervention force that helped to overthrow Gaddafi in Libya, and it is widely thought to be funding Syrian rebels against Assad. It is also a firm ally of the US, hosting the Al Udeid Air Base, the largest US military facility in the Middle East – yet it has just permitted the Taliban to open an office in Doha.
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In 2005, the Qatar Investment Authority was set up specifically to buy a lot of things around the world and thus reduce the country’s exposure to the oil price. In London alone, it owns Harrods, the Shard, the Chelsea Barracks site, the US embassy and the Olympic village site, among many others. It is also the largest shareholder in Sainsbury’s, with just over a quarter of the business. And it co-owns Miramax Films after purchasing it from Disney with a group of other investors.
Michel Platini admits politics played part in Qatar 2022 World Cup win
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/sep/20/michel-platini-politics-qatar-2022-world-cup
Responding to the assertion of the Fifa president, Sepp Blatter, that the Qatar 2022 World Cup was a “political” choice by European voters, the Uefa president, Michel Platini, has confirmed that “political and economic influences” were a factor.
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Blatter, … , said in an interview this week that there was “definitely direct political influence” on European executive committee members to vote for Qatar.
“European leaders recommended to its voting members to opt for Qatar, because of major economic interests in the country,” he told the German weekly Die Zeit.
Platini … has insisted that a much scrutinised meeting with the then French president Nicolas Sarkozy, the now Emir of Qatar and the Qatar prime minister did not result in pressure being put on him. “I knew Sarkozy wanted the people from Qatar to buy PSG,” Platini told the Guardian in May. “I understood that Sarkozy supported the candidature of Qatar.
FIFA Worldcup 2022 in Qatar (world's richest country per capita) 