September 28, 2013
Source: Zero Hedge
The Egyptians dispensed with the life of their slaves in the construction of the pyramids as if they were nothing but throw-away products before that had even been invented in the modern day and age in which we live. Today, Qatar is doing the self-same thing. There are 1.2 million migrant workers (the vast majority of them are in the construction industry) in Qatar and they are working flat out under the pressure of the Qataris to get the country ready to host the2022 World Cup. But, those modern-day slaves are set to die at the rate of a dozen every week before the projects get finalized. That means there will be 600 deaths every year related to the construction of stadiums and infrastructure for a leather ball that will be kicked around a field for the pleasure of the millions that will be ready to watch the matches played in 9 years.
Not only has Qatar hit the headlines in recent months for keeping westerners hostage in the country under the strange laws of maintaining workers under almost hostage-like conditions because they are refused their passports and cannot leave the country unless their sponsors give the green light and allow them to do so.
Qatar 2022 World Cup
Now, the richest country in the world is also getting itself into hot water because the workers that are from Nepaland India and that have been brought in to do the dirty work in 50°C-temperatures are dropping like flies. But, the Qatari government seems as if it has very little concern over the poor people dying. Is it money that means that life can be dispensed with a will? Or is it that the Qatari government really only lends any importance to their own infrastructure rather than life of the Nepalese and Indian migrant workers?
Half a million extra workers will be needed in the next few years in order for the whistle to be blown around the world for the games to begin on time. Those workers will be primarily from India, Sri Lanka and Nepal. Investigations have shown by the International Trade Union Confederation that autopsies are rarely performed and that deaths are almost systematically put down to heart failure. The majority of the twelve deaths per week in the country on construction sites for migrant workers are due to heart failure? Is that catching?
•Cramped accommodation in which the migrants are housed and the squalid living conditions are part of the reason why the migrants are dying.
•They have been forced into labor and to work in temperatures that would boil your brain.
•As with all migrant workers, salaries are retained by the sponsors that are necessary in order to find work in the country and passports are confiscated to stop them leaving the country.
•Reports have shown that between June and August there were 44 deaths of Nepalese migrants working in the construction industry on the building sites of the World Cup.
•Perhaps the fact that the government of Qatar has been withholding free drinking water to the workers might have something to do with it.
•How do they expect workers to pay for water when their salaries have been withheld too?
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