World Cup workers: Beatings, jail and deportation
Andrew Maganga from Kenya will never forget Qatar. It was in this country that he, for the first time in his life, was treated as a criminal. All he did was demand the salary that was promised to him for working as a security guard during the World Cup. For that he was arrested. His telephone was confiscated, and his mugshot and fingerprints were taken. He was sent to jail...
A primary school teacher, Bubacarr Kujabi from The Gambia backs up Andrew’s story. He, too, got deported after working as one of Stark Security’s senior supervisors... “The day we were arrested, we were starving,” recalls Bubacarr. “They had seized our food, they didn’t give us food anymore. We were struggling and suffering.”
“They played a trick on us. When the police came, Stark Security said we were protesting and that’s not allowed in Qatar. We had told them we was here to collect our salary. The police escorted us to prison and destroyed my ID. They even scanned my eyes. It is crazy. I did not do anything wrong, I contributed to making the World Cup successful, but they broke my heart into pieces.”...
Hillary Opuuli from Uganda was the victim of constant wage theft at his delivery company Rafeeq, he says, and his boss reported him to CID (Criminal Investigations Department) when he complained. Alongside a dozen workers from Ghana, Uganda and Nepal, he was deported for ‘absconding’, a common tactic used by companies to suppress workers or smother rebellion...
Edrine Bosa from Uganda, who claims his company Zawiya owes him 5,000 Qatari riyals (1,250 euro) in wages, recalls the day police CID arrived at his accommodation after he and his colleagues had filed a case at the labour court, prompted by unpaid wages and a lack of food. He says: “CID were not in uniform, one had handcuffs and a gun. Too much beating. With their hands. They beat him. They kick, boxing, and some fighting. When we tried to run, they put some of them in the car and took them to jail. Our managing director said if you don’t want to be taken to prison, take a ticket and go back home. I took the ticket because without food, how can you survive?” ...
Neither Stark Security nor Fifa replied to our request for comments.