FIFA has yet to officially commit to a fund to compensate migrant workers for harms and deaths in Qatar, despite public backing from at least seven national Football Associations, four World Cup sponsors, former players, political leaders and, according to an opinion poll, a large majority of the public in 15 countries, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and FairSquare said today.
On May 17, five months ago, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and FairSquare, along with a global coalition of rights groups, unions, and fan support groups, launched the #PayUpFIFA campaign demanding that FIFA provide remedy, including financial compensation, for serious abuses including deaths, injuries, unpaid wages, and exorbitant recruitment costs. Barely one month ahead of the tournament, FIFA has not yet announced it will remedy abuses but says it is still considering the proposal.
“It’s an embarrassment that despite prominent footballers, football associations and sponsors supporting the #PayUpFIFA campaign and widespread popular support, FIFA has still failed to commit to calls for a remedy fund for many thousands of migrant workers who died, were injured, or had their wages stolen while making the World Cup possible,” Michael Page, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch said. “FIFA is failing in its human rights responsibilities and showing its disdain for the migrant workers who built the Qatar tournament infrastructure that will fuel its profits.”
On October 13, the Associated Press reported that FIFA Deputy Secretary General Alasdair Bell told a Council of Europe session that compensation is “certainly something that we’re interested in progressing.” However, just weeks from the World Cup opening game, neither FIFA nor Qatar have formally committed to setting up a fund to remedy a range of harms including the deaths of migrant workers who delivered the World Cup.
When FIFA, football’s governing body, awarded Qatar the World Cup hosting rights in 2010, it knew or should have known that the millions of migrant workers building an unprecedented US$220 billion in infrastructure would face grave human rights risks. Yet FIFA neither imposed labor rights conditions nor undertook effective human rights due diligence. The organization has now failed to publicly commit to remedying these serious abuses with weeks remaining before the tournament’s start.
Since May, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and FairSquare have reached out to the 32 football associations (FAs) that have qualified for the 2022 World Cup, urging them to publicly support the remedy fund. Of these, at least seven of the qualifying FAs have so far publicly supported the remedy call, including the:
- Royal Belgian Football Association (RBFA),
- French Football Federation (FFF),
- English Football Association,
- Deutscher Fußball-Bund (German Football Association, DFB),
- Koninklijke Nederlandse Voetbalbond (Royal Dutch Football Association, KNVB),
- Football Association of Wales (FAW), and the
- United States Soccer Federation (U.S. Soccer).
In addition, the call has been supported by the Norwegian FA, while the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), the umbrella organization for 55 national football associations, Working Group on Workers’ Rights in Qatar has been pressing FIFA to commit to a remedy program. On October 14, the UEFA Working Group stated that it requested FIFA to respond and commit to outstanding issues regarding migrant workers by the end of October. The call comes after their June report following a trip to Qatar stating that the issue of compensation was discussed at length and the Working Group “agreed the principle that any injury or death in any workplace in any country should be compensated.”
Of the 32 qualifying teams, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and/or FairSquare have held in-person or online briefings with FAs including the DFB, the KNVB, the English FA, Belgian FA, Swiss FA, French FA, U.S. Soccer, Dansk Boldspil-Union (the Danish Football Union, DBU) as well as the UEFA Working Group. Three FAs, the Japanese FA, the Football Association of Wales, and Football Australia, provided written responses that provided no substantive information and did not respond to a recommendation that they advocate with FIFA to remediate the harms caused to migrant workers. However, the Football Association of Wales later issued a statement saying that, with the UEFA Working Group, they “agreed the principle that any injury or death should be compensated.”
At the Germany FA’s (DFB’s) human rights conference on September 19, President Bernd Neuendorf expressed his “unconditional support” for the remedy fund. The Dutch FA (KNVB) has also supported the compensation call, stating that victims or relatives should be compensated. The Dutch head coach Louis Van Gaal strongly supported the remedy call. The English FA said that they continue to push for the “principle of compensation” for the families of migrant workers who have lost their lives or have been injured in construction projects. The French Football Federation (FFF) stated