{"id":14192,"date":"2022-12-12T03:56:22","date_gmt":"2022-12-12T11:56:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=14192"},"modified":"2022-12-13T04:05:18","modified_gmt":"2022-12-13T12:05:18","slug":"fifa-misleading-world-on-remedy-for-migrant-workers-amnesty-internationa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=14192","title":{"rendered":"“FIFA misleading world on remedy for migrant workers”, Amnesty International"},"content":{"rendered":"

News, December 12, 2022<\/span><\/p>\n

FIFA is still failing to fulfill its human rights responsibilities by refusing to commit to compensate migrant workers and their families for abuses while preparing and delivering the World Cup 2022 tournament in Qatar, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, FairSquare, and Equidem said today.<\/p>\n

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\"\"FABRICE COFFRINI\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/span><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Since June, following a coalition of organizations\u2019\u00a0call for remedy<\/a>\u00a0for migrant workers, FIFA indicated in a series of communications that it was committed to identifying ways to compensate migrant workers who faced deaths, injuries, and rampant wage theft, and to support an independent migrant workers\u2019 center, as part of a legacy program. But on the eve of the tournament, FIFA failed to release any plan to do so and instead announced a new\u00a0\u2018Legacy Fund\u2019<\/a>\u00a0that currently includes no provision for workers\u2019 compensation. FIFA President, Gianni Infantino, also made misleading comments that workers can simply access compensation through an existing mechanism in Qatar, when this mechanism is in fact not set up to provide compensation on any meaningful scale related to deaths, injuries, and historic wage theft.With the World Cup 2022 entering its final week, the organizations have called on FIFA to use the Legacy Fund to finance compensation for workers and the families of those who died.<\/p>\n

\u201cFIFA\u2019s egregious whitewashing of serious abuses against migrant workers in Qatar is both a global embarrassment and a sinister tactic to escape its human rights responsibility to compensate thousands of workers who faced abuse and the families of those who died to make this World Cup possible,\u201d said\u00a0Tirana Hassan<\/a>, acting executive director of Human Rights Watch. \u201cFIFA continues to cash in on billions of dollars in revenue but refuses to offer a single cent for the families of migrant workers who died or those workers who were cheated out of their wages.\u201d<\/p>\n

FIFA continues to cash in on billions of dollars in revenue but refuses to offer a single cent for the families of migrant workers who died<\/p>\n

Tirana Hassan, Acting Executive Director of Human Rights Watch<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In the months before the World Cup 2022 opened, FIFA indicated in a series of statements and briefings that they planned to compensate workers. This included a series of public statements indicating that FIFA was\u00a0open to compensating<\/a>\u00a0migrant workers and supporting an independent migrant workers\u2019 center. At the October 13 Council of Europe hearing on labor rights in Qatar, FIFA Deputy Secretary General Alasdair Bell\u00a0stated<\/a>\u00a0that \u201ccompensation is certainly something that we\u2019re interested in progressing,\u201d and that \u201cIt\u2019s important to try to see that anyone who suffered injury as a consequence of working in the World Cup, that that is somehow redressed.\u201d FIFA has also previously\u00a0assured<\/a>\u00a0the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Working Group on Workers\u2019 Rights in Qatar that they are \u201clooking into compensation mechanisms.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walking back remedy<\/strong><\/p>\n

On the eve of the tournament, on November 19, FIFA President Gianni Infantino responded to calls to ensure remedy for workers by contending that the Qatar Labor Ministry\u2019s\u00a0Workers Support and Insurance Fund<\/a>,\u00a0would take care of compensation. He\u00a0invited anyone believing they were owed compensation<\/u><\/a>\u00a0simply to \u201ccontact the relevant authorities to seek due recompense.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Workers\u2019 Support and Insurance Fund, operationalized in 2020, has been used to compensate workers for wage theft after employers failed to pay out following labor court rulings in workers\u2019 favor. But the fund is not currently set up to be able to provide compensation on any meaningful scale related to deaths, injuries, and historic wage theft in the decade before it was operationalized.<\/p>\n

Qatari authorities have also failed to provide disaggregated details about the announced US$350 million reimbursed to migrant workers for wage theft, despite repeated requests by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. In addition, research has also shown that victims\u2019 access to existing compensation mechanisms is rife with obstacles, payments are capped, and that it is nearly impossible for workers or families to apply after they have returned to their home countries.<\/p>\n

The biggest obstacle is that in\u00a0a large majority of deaths<\/u><\/a>\u00a0of migrant workers in Qatar, families are not eligible for compensation as authorities attributed them to \u201cnatural causes\u201d or \u201ccardiac arrest\u201d without proper investigation into the underlying cause of death. Under\u00a0Qatar\u2019s Labour Law<\/u><\/a>, only deaths and injuries attributed to work related causes require employers to pay compensation.<\/p>\n

At the same press conference, FIFA also announced it would establish the\u00a0FIFA\u00a0World Cup Qatar 2022 Legacy Fund<\/u><\/a>,\u00a0to be used on education projects in developing countries. Although the size of the fund is not yet known, previous legacy funds have been set at $100\u00a0million<\/u><\/a>. However, the announcement makes no reference to using the fund to finance remedy for migrant workers who suffered abuses to make the World Cup 2022 possible, nor to support an independent migrant workers\u2019 center as called for by trade unions.<\/p>\n

By changing course, FIFA could make a lasting difference to the lives of the true heroes behind this World Cup<\/p>\n

Steve Cockburn, Head of Economic and Social Justice at Amnesty International\u00a0<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cMany thousands of migrant workers have paid illegal fees, had wages stolen or even lost their lives to make the world\u2019s most lucrative sporting event possible. It would be outrageous for FIFA\u2019s Legacy Fund not to recognize their contribution and compensate them for their losses,\u201d said Steve Cockburn, Head of Economic and Social Justice at Amnesty International.<\/p>\n

\u201cFIFA can still do the right thing by channeling the Legacy Fund towards workers and their families, supporting a genuinely independent workers\u2019 center and working with Qatar to ensure that every worker can access the compensation that they deserve. By changing course, FIFA could make a lasting difference to the lives of the true heroes behind this World Cup. Refusing to do so would be a terrible indictment on its commitment to workers\u2019 rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

Remedy: A Human Rights Responsibility\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

In addition, FIFA said it would set aside funding\u00a0to support the creation of a more general \u2018labor excellence hub,\u2019 in partnership with the International Labour Organization (ILO).\u00a0The role of this would be to share \u201cbest practices\u201d in labor matters and support adherence to the\u00a0United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights<\/u><\/a>\u00a0in future tournaments. Yet, access to a remedy is a foundational principle of the UN Guiding Principles to which FIFA itself is bound, the groups said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWorld Cup workers and their relatives are contacting us demanding compensation for unpaid wages, recruitment charges and other harms including deaths. Rather than shifting the goal posts, FIFA and Qatar should heed these calls. The tournament has been mired by worker deaths and exploitation and significant restrictions on freedom of expression and solidarity with the LGBTI+ community. This is an opportunity for FIFA and Qatar to end the tournament with a positive legacy for the women and men who have made it possible,\u201d said Mustafa Qadri, Chief Executive Officer of Equidem.<\/p>\n

World Cup workers and their relatives are contacting us demanding compensation for unpaid wages, recruitment charges and other harms including deaths<\/p>\n

Mustafa Qadri, Chief Executive Officer of Equidem<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

FIFA is set to\u00a0generate US$7.5 billion<\/u><\/a>\u00a0from this tournament and should have fulfilled its own human rights responsibilities under the UN Guiding Principles, which\u00a0make clear<\/u><\/a>\u00a0that a business enterprise\u2019s responsibility to respect human rights \u201cexists independently of States\u2019 abilities and\/or willingness to fulfill their own human rights obligations and does not diminish those obligations.\u201d FIFA also owes a public explanation on why it switched from \u201cconsidering\u201d the proposal for remedy to dismissing it completely.<\/p>\n

Calls for compensation have escalated since the launch of the\u00a0#PayUpFIFA<\/u><\/a>\u00a0campaign on May 19, when a global coalition of human rights organizations, migrant rights groups, labor unions, and fan groups\u00a0called on<\/u><\/a>\u00a0FIFA to establish with Qatar a comprehensive program to provide remedy for all abuses related to the\u00a02022 World Cup<\/u><\/a>. The football governing body\u00a0failed to conduct adequate human rights due diligence<\/u><\/a>\u00a0when it awarded the World Cup to Qatar in 2010 and has failed since then to take timely and effective measures to mitigate and remedy abuses.<\/p>\n

By so far refusing to compensate workers, FIFA has ultimately ignored the call by\u00a0migrant workers and their families<\/u><\/a>\u00a0for a remedy fund and an independent migrant workers\u2019 center, despite wide support by the\u00a0global public<\/u><\/a>,\u00a0football associations<\/u><\/a>,\u00a0sponsors<\/u><\/a>,\u00a0political leaders<\/u><\/a>, and\u00a0athletes<\/u><\/a>. Last week, campaign Avaaz also presented\u00a0720,000 petitions<\/u><\/a>\u00a0from members of the public supporting the campaign. Throughout the cheers for the World Cup teams, frustrations at the human costs of the event have resounded loudly among football\u2019s global fan base.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of ensuring protection of migrant workers who built and delivered the World Cup infrastructure in Qatar, FIFA has benefited from their exploitation and parroted Qatari authorities\u2019 talking points, showing their complicity to all the misleading claims and deflections on abuses of migrant workers,\u201d said Nick McGeehan, founding director of FairSquare, which investigates migrant labor abuses. \u201cFIFA has tuned out genuine demands for remedy for migrant workers including from the football industry and ignored evidence of widespread uncompensated abuses and the inadequacies of the current compensation systems in Qatar.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/article>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

News, December 12, 2022 FIFA is still failing to fulfill its human rights responsibilities by refusing to commit to compensate migrant workers and their families for abuses while preparing and delivering the World Cup 2022 tournament in Qatar, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, FairSquare, and Equidem said today. FABRICE COFFRINI\/AFP\/Getty Images Since June, following a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001004,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14192"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001004"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14192"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14194,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14192\/revisions\/14194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}