"World Cup 2022: Qatar is ready as it strongly contests accusations of workers' rights abuses," 9 July 2021

... each [stadium in Qatar] has been built with the help of an army of workers coming from abroad, many of whom hail from South Asia and parts of Africa. And the small Gulf country has gone on a media offensive following several reports alleging egregious mistreatment and abuse...

Hassan Al Thawadi -- the man in charge of leading the event's preparations – [said] that The Guardian's 6,500 [worker fatalities] figure was "inherently misleading"...

"FIFA and the Qatari Supreme Committee (SC) have always maintained transparency around these fatalities," [FIFA] said, adding that the Supreme Committee investigates every work-related incident...

human rights organizations allege that thousands of workers involved in stadium construction and infrastructure projects have been subjected to labor exploitation and human rights violations....

[Nepali human rights lawyer Barun] Ghimire told CNN the plight of Nepalese labor workers is "particularly grievous in the Gulf."

... since [Qatar was awarded the World Cup, Ghimire] ...has received a "significantly high chunk" of complaints from Nepalese workers...

A 2020 United Nations report found "serious concerns of structural racial discrimination against non-nationals" in Qatar…

"Nobody denies that more work needs to be done," Al Thawadi said. But he claims "the commitment that the state has shown and has made early on to deliver upon those promises" is clear...

[Researcher Fabien] Goa applauded Qatar's recent steps and said that dismantling the kafala system was "the most significant reform" Qatar has taken -- but that it came too late...

[and] while dismantling the kafala system was a positive step, many loopholes remain, such as "absconding charges,"