Misery of Qatar migrant workers readying nation for 2022 World Cup reveals ugly side of beautiful game(VIDEO)

Misery of Qatar migrant workers readying nation for 2022 World Cup reveals ugly side of beautiful game

BY KEVIN MAGUIRE

Unite boss Len McCluskey has spoken to workers in a labour camp north of Doha - and he's shocked by their squalid living conditions

Entering through an unguarded entrance to the concrete complex, before being led down a corridor littered with shoes outside doors, we are guided into a small room.

Crammed inside are eight bunks – the limit is supposed to be four – as well as migrant workers’ clothes, possessions, food and cooking utensils.

With no table or chairs in the ­overcrowded, squalid rooms, labourers are forced to eat meals on their beds.

This is reality for many of those working to get Qatar ready for the 2022 World Cup.

Unite leader Len McCluskey is on a secret, after-dark trip to the labour camp in Al Khor, north of the capital Doha, to see the diabolic conditions for himself and speak to the workers.

They complain through an interpreter about low pay and long hours.

Read more: Qatari government claims NOBODY has died during work for World Cup

Cramped: The work camp that homes thousands of migrant workers

“Football is a beautiful game turned ugly by the heartbreaking ill-treatment of wave after wave of workers lured to Qatar on false promises, then trapped in a living hell,” says Mr McCluskey.

But now international football chiefs are to be confronted by a British coalition over the deadly exploitation of migrants.

Union boss Mr McCluskey will form a united front with MPs and campaigners after witnessing widespread abuse of migrants on his unofficial visit.

He also plans to build an alliance with the ­Professional Footballers’ Association and supporters’ clubs to demand guarantees from the five candidates to succeed disgraced Sepp Blatter as Fifa boss.

“Wages agreed in advance aren’t paid and they’re packed into dirty, hot, crowded rooms, with the inadequate cooking and washing areas a severe health risk because they’re so dirty,” says Mr McCluskey.

“Every football fan, trade unionist and anybody who cares about decency must protest loudly because we can’t stand by and look the other way, letting these workers be tortured like this.”

One of the workers refuses to take any money before running to a shop to buy a cool bottle of cola for the ­delegation, which included Labour MPs Ian Lavery and Naz Shah.

Squalid: Migrant workers live and work in terrible conditions in Qatar

“They are forced to live in a dump but their spirit and pride isn’t broken,” says union chief Mr McCluskey.

“I wish I could make company bosses, Qatari rulers and the British ­ambassador see the grim reality. It’s shameful.”

Qatar is the world’s richest country per head, thanks to its vast supply of oil and natural gas, but is subject to strict Islamic law.

Criticising its ruler, the Emir, is illegal while crimes such as ­adultery and drinking alcohol are punishable by flogging.

Its mistreatment of migrant workers, many from South Asia, adds to the controversy over the World Cup going to a country so hot the matches will have to be played in winter.

Two years ago the Mirror exposed how more than 1,200 workers had died in a construction boom, leading Qatar to announce reforms.

Roads, hotels, shopping malls and offices, including infrastructure linked to the World Cup, were a killing zone. Some workers reported that bosses were flouting laws that allow workers to take breaks in ­sweltering ­temperatures.

Shocked: Unite boss Len McCluskey is spearheading a campaign to help migrant workers in Qatar

The 250,000 Qatari nationals are vastly outnumbered by 1.8 million migrant workers flown in from India, Nepal, ­Pakistan, ­Bangladesh and the Philippines to work in the building and ­services industries.

But the Mirror found they were paid as little as £120 a month for grafting six days a week.

One worker says he was forbidden to go home after his father had died. And a group of young Filipino women claim their bosses subjected them to humiliating abuse.

The Qataris are keen to stress conditions are better on World Cup stadiums such as the showpiece Khalifa in Doha. But in Al Khor, home to thousands of migrant workers in other roles, conditions certainly haven’t improved two years on.

The dirty, sprawling complex houses 50,000 workers, packed eight or 10 to a room, with few facilities for washing, cleaning and cooking. The doors on the toilets have no locks. Another camp has just one toilet for every 60 people, while a new “Labour City” built for workers in capital Doha resembles a prison with its towering perimeter walls.

One labourer on £160 a month shows a ­photograph on his phone of a worker crushed to death by a road roller.

“We were told by the police it was none of our business,” he says. “They moved us away and told us to say nothing, threatening to send us back to Bangladesh.”

Exposed: Two years ago the Mirror lifted the lid on the "living hell" faced by workers in Qatar

A group of Filipino waitresses explains how they were forced to work 16 hours a day. After their restaurant shifts, 27 of them were crammed in a 13-seater van and taken to do cleaning jobs.

The women, packed 10 to a room in a house and required to buy their own mattresses, worked in large, Western hotel chains and absconded when they couldn’t stand the abuse any longer.

“The Egyptian manager would slap our faces, spit into our faces, if we didn’t move fast enough or complained,” one claims. “We paid $1,000 [£700] to come here and were promised $400 [£280] as waitresses. We received $275 [£190] a month and made to clean, work in shops, babysit.

“The heat in summer was too much, 50C. We couldn’t bear it so agreed together to leave without permission.”

The group is taking legal action with the support of the ­Philippine embassy.

Trade unions are banned in Qatar, where the kafala system gives bosses huge control over workers who must secure permission to switch jobs or leave the kingdom.

Preparations: The Khalifa International Stadium is being readied for the 2022 World Cup

Mr McCluskey and two MPs on the ­delegation, arranged by Building Workers’ ­International, met with the British ­ambassador in Doha.

The Unite leader said the British Government felt the Qataris were “frightened” of unions but the ambassador expressed willingness to look at grievances.

Labour frontbencher Mr Lavery said: “These people are being treated like animals and the appalling wages and conditions trap them in a nightmare.

“The migrants want to work and aren’t afraid of hard work. Most of those I spoke to want to stay in Qatar. But they want the money they were promised and to be put in rooms fit for human habitation.”

Fellow Labour MP Ms Shah, who ­represents Bradford West, criticised the Pakistani and Bangladeshi governments for refusing to publish numbers of their nationals dying in Qatar.

The Muslim politician said: “When national governments stand up for their people, the Qataris will be forced to treat them better. While they keep quiet, the Qataris aren’t going to change.”

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