"Wage theft in Qatar didn’t stop with the World Cup,"

Francis Nanseera is a 36-year-old former migrant worker who has returned to his country of origin in Eastern Africa after spending nine months in Qatar. This is the story of his experience, told in his own words.

The people who say the World Cup made things better for workers in Qatar are probably tourists. Their experiences are coloured by visits to new places, shaped by interesting scenery, and marked by good memories. I know, because I’m one of the people who toiled to make those experiences possible...

The charade is over now. The spectacle is long done. But plenty of migrant workers remain in Qatar. And they are still suffering...

During my nine months there I filed numerous complaints, but never received a single reply. The police did not honor the experiences of people who did not speak Arabic. Instead they arrested us, maybe deported us, if we dared to file a report against our employer. It happened to me. I was arrested, cuffed, taken away to a filthy facility, and physically assaulted by the police. My colleagues suffered similar experiences...

I was employed by Infinity Delivery Services, a subcontractor for the food delivery company Talabat. Owned by German company Delivery Hero, Talabat is like Deliveroo or Uber Eats for the Gulf states...

openDemocracy contacted Talabat, its parent company, Delivery Hero, and Infinity Delivery Services, with a request for comment, but had not received a response at the time of publishing....

[Business & Human Rights Resource Centre has previously covered reported abuse of Talabat riders on our website; responses from Delivery Hero and Talabat can be read here.]