"Everything wrong with the Qatar World Cup", 16 Nov 2022

Qatar went for the competition to drive an economic diversification programme for a world after fossil fuels, and key to that is presenting the country as a business centre without complicated questions on human rights. It is the most elementary example of “sportswashing”...

That reality, according to Isobel Archer of the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC), involves illegal recruitment fees amounting to “hundreds, or even thousands of dollars and is one of the worst drivers of abuse in the region”. It has been estimated that Bangladeshi men have paid £1.14bn in fees between 2011 and 2020...

“Wage theft”, which is how NGOs describe missed payments, are especially ruinous. Workers are usually the sole source of income for their families and, if they cannot send it on, education fees and meals are missed...

It goes even deeper. The security guards are always black Africans. Women from the Philippines are preferred as maids. Nepalis, Bangladeshis and Indians form the majority of the workforce in hazardous jobs...