A DOZEN people are crammed into a tiny, squalid room. Their meals are cooked near open pit toilets. It is a scene reminiscent of a third world slum. But this is not the third world.
A short walk from the glitzy, Manhattan-style city of Doha in one of the richest countries in the world, are the filthy living quarters home to hundreds of thousands of migrant workers.
Qatar wants the world to see the shiny new stadiums being erected around the giant city under construction. But this is what they don’t want you to see.
Journalist Eric Campbell visited the gulf state to see for himself what the $260 billion 2022 World Cup preparations look like. His report airs on the ABC’s Foreign Correspondent program tonight at 8pm. It could turn you off “the world game” for good.
The squalid conditions inside a labourers camp in Doha. Picture: Courtesy ABC. Source: ABC
‘THIS IS MODERN DAY SLAVERY’
Qatar has a higher standard of living than Australia. But try telling that to the migrant workers in camps outside the city limits.
Mr Campbell told news.com.au his visit was eye-opening and tense and that he saw things that were inhumane.
“When you go into these dorm suburbs there is no sewage, no paved roads, no basic infrastructure. There’s an incredible glitzy city there but workers are living in Dickensian conditions in slums outside the city”.
The death toll for workers constructing hotels, convention centres, freeways and stadiums to cater to the football-loving public in seven years time fluctuates, mainly because only two countries — India and Nepal — keep official records.
Both countries have lost 200 workers each and reports suggest as many as 4000 workers could die before kick off in 2022.
Is it worth it? Well, workers are paid $50 a week to slave away in 50 degree heat for more than 12 hours a day without overtime. When they finish, they share their room with 11 other workers.
Mr Campbell said he expects the death toll to climb above 4000.
“That’s a very conservative estimate because they’re working during summer where temperatures get well over 45 degrees. There’s heat exhaustion, heat stroke, people collapsing from dehydration. Anywhere else in the world you wouldn’t be working in those conditions.”
Shared spaces: It’s 12 to a room for workers in one of the world’s richest countries. Picture: Courtesy ABC. Source: ABC
‘THEY’RE NOT ALLOWED TO GO HOME’
Things have been particularly bad for Nepalese workers who Mr Campbell said have been banned from going home for the funerals of friends and family members killed in last month’s devastating earthquakes.
“In the last few weeks they’ve been stopping them going home,” he said.
The problem for many is that foreign workers agree to terms under a system known as “kafala”. They surrender their passports to the employer who sponsors them and in turn they surrender many of their rights.
The Government of Nepal complained in recent weeks but there appears to be no change to the status quo. And anybody who questions the way things work in Qatar faces arrest, journalists included.
BBC journalist Mark Lobel visited Doha recently and was arrested for reporting on conditions experienced by labourers.
“We were on a quiet stretch of road in the capital, Doha, on our way to film a group of workers from Nepal,” he said.
“The working and housing conditions of migrant workers constructing new buildings in Qatar ahead of the World Cup have been heavily criticised and we wanted to see them for ourselves.
Foreign Correspondent journalist Eric Campbell studies the growing skyline in Doha. Picture: Courtesy ABC. Source:ABC
“Suddenly, eight white cars surrounded our vehicle and directed us on to a side road at speed.”
He said a dozen security officers “frisked them”, took their equipment and drove them to police headquarters. The group was interrogated, thrown into prison cells then, “just as suddenly as we were arrested, we were released”.
Mr Campbell said he and his team experienced a similar welcome from the local police force.
“We spent three days altogether, filming on small cameras, conducting quick interviews, guerilla shootings, jumping in the car running away,” he said.
“We were very lucky that we didn’t get arrested.”
He and the team came close, ironically, while filming a state-sanctioned media tour of a stadium.
He said four police boarded the bus, demanded to know where they were going, confiscated cameras and threatened to arrest everybody on board.
Sharan Burrow, head of the International Trade Union Confederation, organised the tour for Mr Campbell and his crew. She has a very black and white view of what’s happening in Doha.
“(They) live in squalor. They’re owned by another individual, lock, stock and barrel — that’s slavery.”
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