Less than ten days to go before kick-off, World Cup host Qatar and Zurich-based FIFA continue to face intense criticism from human rights groups and observers over the Gulf state’s treatment of migrant workers and its human rights record.
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Anistia Internacional insta FIFA a compensar os trabalhadores migrantes da Copa do Mundo
Qatar has come under severe scrutiny from human rights groups over the migrant issue in the run-up to the tournament, which runs from November 20 to December 18.
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On Friday, Amnesty International again urged FIFA President Gianni Infantino to pay financial compensation to migrant workers who built the World Cup stadiums in Qatar.
In an opinion piece published in the French daily Le Monde, Amnesty and 24 other NGOs called on football’s world governing body to remedy the “abuses” they say workers from the Indian sub-continent and Africa have suffered.
“In the midst of this growing clamour, the most crucial voice of all has remained conspicuously silent: that of Gianni Infantino,” lamented Amnesty International secretary general Agnès Callamard.
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The FIFA president recently angered human rights groups by telling the 32 nations participating in the tournament, taking place from November 20-December 18, to “focus on football”. The Swiss also urged the teams to stop “giving moral lessons”.
Last year, Qatar’s government denied claims in a report by human rights organisation Amnesty International that thousands of migrant workers were being trapped and exploited. FIFA has said that “regular independent inspections” have been carried out on Qatari construction sites by the Building and Woodworkers International Union (BWI).
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In a separate interview on Friday in CH Media newspapers, Lucerne ethics professor Peter G. Kirchschläger called for a spectator boycott of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
“If you have understood that something is ethically wrong, you should adjust your own actions accordingly,” he told the CH Media group.
Kirchschläger also attacked Switzerland for not taking its responsibility for Zurich-based FIFA. The Swiss authorities do nothing against human rights violations abroad by corporations and organisations headquartered in Switzerland, said the ethics professor.
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“Switzerland knows what FIFA is doing and should intervene accordingly,” said Kirchschläger.
Last week, Qatar’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said people calling for a boycott of the World Cup in Qatar were from a handful of countries that do not represent the rest of the world which is looking forward to the tournament.
“The reasons given for boycotting the World Cup do not add up. There is a lot of hypocrisy in these attacks, which ignore all that we have achieved,” Sheikh Mohammed told Le Monde.
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‘Project Merciless’: how Qatar spied on the world of football in Switzerland
This content was published on
Qatar orchestrated a major intelligence operation against FIFA officials helped by ex-CIA agents. Switzerland was a key theatre of operations.
Ex-FIFA boss regrets choice of Qatar for World Cup
This content was published on
The former FIFA president, Sepp Blatter, says the choice of Qatar to host the 2022 World Cup was a mistake as the Gulf country is too small.
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If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.