Schweizerischer Fussballverband (Swiss Football Association) response to questions regarding labour rights risks to migrant workers & remedy for abuse during the Qatar 2022 World Cup
Six months after the final of the Qatar 2022 World Cup, our research - After the Final Whistle: Migrant workers speak out on exploitation during Qatar World Cup 2022 - revealed systemic labour rights abuse among workers in Qatar during the World Cup, including extortionate and illegal fee-charging, wage theft, an atmosphere of fear and intimidation, and a serious lack of due diligence or monitoring by employers and workplaces on how workers were being treated at work. We asked all participating, visiting football associations the following;
- Invite you to respond to the findings of the report; and,
- Invite you to disclose information regarding the risks to workers detected by your systems during the tournament, including:
- How many reports of abuse your organisation detected among contracted companies’ workforces, including at team and staff hotels;
- The steps your organization took in response to those reports; and,
- The steps taken to remedy and compensate workers, including amounts reimbursed in the case of recruitment fee-payment and wage theft.
The Schweizerischer Fussballverband (Swiss Football Association) said:
After the World Cup, we continued to campaign within the framework of the Human Rights Working Group for the compensation of injured workers from those responsible for labour rights violations. There have been further meetings with FIFA officials who have promised to compensate injured workers. This process has not yet been concluded.
It is also of great concern to us that these violations of human and labour rights must be examined and established by an independent judiciary so that the right people can be evaluated and held accountable.
In the run-up to the World Cup, the SFV carried out audits at the hotel and came to the conclusion that the rights of the newly hired workers in the newly built hotel where our team was staying during the World Cup were being respected. This was again confirmed to us in personal conversations on site during the tournament.
As the Swiss Football Association, which founded and launched the Human Rights Working Group, we will work in the future to ensure that the criteria of human and workers' rights play a much more important role in award decisions than they have in the past.