Monday, November 21, 2022

Germany: Huge candle action commemorates Qatar worker deaths

Story by Timothy Jones, Deutsche Welle • 9h ago

A German artist has lit a stadium with 20,000 candles to remember migrant workers who have died in Qatar. FIFA and the Qatari government are accused of putting profit before human rights with the current World Cup.

Masses of grave candles illuminated a football stadium in the western German city of Herne on Sunday night as the controversial FIFA World Cup got underway in Qatar.


Germany: Huge candle action commemorates Qatar worker deaths
© Provided by Deutsche Welle

The action by the workers' welfare agency AWO and the artist Volker-Johannes Trieb commemorated the more than 15,000 migrant workers who have died in Qatar in the past decade, according to Qatari government statistics.

Altogether 6,500 footballs filled with sand were also placed on the playing field in the stadium in Herne, reflecting another estimate of migrant deaths based on figures provided by non-Qatari governments.

The action bore the title "World conscience, you are a blight."

Qatar has denied many of the accusations leveled at it ahead of the sports event.

'Treated like slaves'


Related video: 'Distrubed and irritated' - Germany FA president slam FIFA on WC human rights issues    Duration 3:14    View on Watch

Although the statistics include all migrant worker deaths in Qatar over the past 10 years or so, the artist, Volker-Johannes Trieb, placed the blame squarely on the World Cup preparations.

"The soccer world championship has cost the lives of many thousands of people. They were treated like slaves and died of heat, exhaustion or because of deficient safety precautions," he said in a statement.

"FIFI and Qatar's government have gone over dead bodies, and that mustn't be ignored amid World Cup celebrations," he added.

The chairman of the local AWO branch, Michael Scheffler, said that his organization considered human rights to be nonnegotiable.

"The life of migrant workers is more important than any profit. With our action, we want to appeal to the conscience of the football world and remind it of the atrocities that have occurred in the run-up to the world championship," he said.

"Sports events must never again be handed to hosts that violate fundamental rights," he added.

AWO and Trieb already caused a stir in April with a protest in front of FIFA headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland, against the awarding of the World Cup to Qatar.

Edited by: Rebecca Staudenmaier

Copyright 2022 DW.COM, Deutsche Welle. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.


Nepalese workers in Qatar pay ultimate price for World Cup


Issued on: 21/11/2022 -
FOCUS © FRANCE 24

By: Tashi BISTA|Savitri RAJALI|Anit KATWAL|Marion LAOUAMEN

Thousands of Nepalese workers have died in Qatar since 2010 on the construction sites of the World Cup. But victims' grieving families are rarely given any compensation by Qatari companies. Most deaths are due to workers falling from high buildings or suffering heart attacks. Human rights groups have questioned working conditions in Qatar, where temperatures often reach 50 °C. Some workers do return home, but their health is ruined. Despite this, many Nepalese continue to flock to the Gulf.

According to local authorities, 13,000 Nepalese have left to work on the World Cup construction sites in Qatar. Some 2,000 of them have died. Various human rights groups believe this number is very much an underestimate.

Due to a lack of jobs and high salaries at home, half a million Nepalese leave every year to work in the Gulf states and Malaysia, getting entrapped in what's been called modern-day slavery. Our correspondents report.


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