DOHA: As Qatar gets ready to host the FIFA World Cup 2022, surprising facts have come to the public view about the deaths of migrant workers during the construction of the mega stadiums.
The right to host this version of the tournament was allotted to Qatar about 10 years ago. Since then the country started taking in migrant workers from the Indian Subcontinent to create stadiums to host the clash of football giants. But the sad truth behind these constructions is that more than 6700 migrant workers have died during this time period in this country. The huge number puts the average death of 12 labours from the countries India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka every week since the announcement towards the end of 2010.
According to a study conducted by The Guardian, official data from India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka put the cumulative number of deaths of citizens from these countries at 5927. The time period has been mentioned as 2011 to 2020 Pakistan itself has put the number at 824 in the duration 2010 to 2020.
A total of 2711 Indian citizens have reportedly lost their jobs in this duration in Qatar. Official records put the cause of 80% of these deaths as natural causes. 10% are deaths have been blamed on road accidents, 6 % on suicide and 4% on incidents of accidents at the workplace.
Nepal comes second on this list with a total of 1641 deaths. 48% of these have been said to be due to natural reasons. 16% of deaths were caused by road accidents, suicides and workplace accidents have been put at 10% each. 9% have died of illnesses and 1% died of homicide. The remaining 7% of these deaths have been termed as other reasons.
Qatar had undertaken the construction of seven new state-of-the-art stadiums across the country for this event. A new airport was also created to handle football lovers from across the globe. Additional roads, public transportation systems and accommodations were also created to match the needs.
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