The Human Cost of Extravagance: Qatar’s FIFA World Cup Human Rights Violations

The 2026 FIFA World Cup concluded a few months ago at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium, breaking global viewership records. Among the excitement, past World Cups regained attention as players around the globe returned to the field to represent their nation. Many preceding tournaments were remembered for exhibitions of cultural pride and unification of fans, such as the 2022 World Cup hosted in Qatar. Qatar was the first Middle Eastern nation to host the tournament, from November 20 to December 18 of 2022. However, the event drew major humanitarian concerns. An innumerable number of lives were devastated, with very few remediation efforts over the last few years.

The peninsular nation in the Persian Gulf had never been in the spotlight of the soccer world before, and needed to develop the adequate infrastructure required to host within a ten-year timeframe. Qatar-based construction agencies, such as Qatar Meta Coats, publicized their need for internationally sourced workers. Between 2010 and 2021, hundreds of thousands of migrant workers from across Asia and Africa arrived in Qatar to build World Cup-related infrastructure. The vast majority of the new workforce migrated from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka, as well as many Southeast Asian and East African nationalities. 

Immediately after construction began, unexplained deaths started being reported. It became evident that working conditions were poorly regulated and proved to be fatal. In the ten years after Qatar was awarded the World Cup, there were approximately 6,750 documented deaths of South Asian migrant workers across employment sectors, with many more deaths likely unrecorded. The Qatari government claimed that the deaths were of “natural causes” and were not out of the ordinary. However, independent reports found that even sufficiently healthy workers were dying from heart-related issues. Many were found deceased in their dormitories from electrocution or asphyxiation, and some died from blunt force trauma due to falls or road accidents. Often, the government concealed causes of death, leaving families to grieve with no proper explanation for how their loved one had passed. 

Before arriving in Qatar, migrants were promised varying degrees of compensation. Their treatment and employment terms were consistent with the kafala sponsorship system, which gave private companies ultimate control over migrant workers’ immigrant status and employment situation. Instead of fair wages, they were exploited through excessive working hours, a lack of safety precautions, and persistent heat, among a vast array of other issues. They were forced to take out loans to finance recruitment fees set by agencies that were illegal under Qatari law. After years of extreme physical and mental tolls, many workers were forced to return to their countries of origin without ever having received proper compensation. 

Many governments of origin countries offer financial support such as Contributory Migrant Welfare Funds (MWFs), which are welfare systems in many origin countries that migrant workers pay into. These funds don’t involve advocacy on workers’ behalf, but funds can be provided to individuals or their families in cases of death, injury, or illness. State-provided services are sometimes available, such as online grief management in India and Nepal, and scholarships for children of the deceased in Bangladesh and the Philippines. 

Some concessions have been made in Qatar as well; in 2020, international condemnation led to the creation of a new platform for submitting grievances about work incidents and conditions. By November 2023, the majority of the complaints submitted up to that point had been resolved. A smaller proportion of cases were referred to courts, and only 17 percent were still under review. The restrictive requirement of needing exit permits was removed, employees became able to change employment more freely, and a minimum wage was introduced in 2021.

Unfortunately, widespread efforts to remedy the kafala system are inadequate because the system is still the de facto practice across the Gulf. It was very much in practice before World Cup preparations began, and the 2022 tournament was only one large-scale demonstration. Despite calls from international human rights organizations, like Amnesty International, for stronger reforms and purposeful remediation, migrant workers still face unsafe working conditions, predatory sponsorships, and debt bondage. Workers have been waiting for years to receive compensation, and companies still demand illegal recruitment fees. What occurred during World Cup preparations was not a singular period of injustice: it exemplifies the fact that families and individuals pay an unnecessary, exorbitant price for opportunity. Workers’ humanity and well-being must be protected and recognized as essential.