Qatar had engaged in a broad PR campaign to secure hosting rights to the 2020 World Cup. Per a partner at the firm that ran Qatar’s campaign, the sporting event was supposed to “give the world its first real opportunity to have a very close look at the modern Middle East; maybe dispel some myths about the Middle East.”

Subsequent events have fallen short of expectations. Human rights exposes about horrific working conditions for migrant workers have spread globally, and the story has bounced between the substantive allegations and Doha’s efforts to block journalists and human rights workers from discovering the extent to which those allegations are accurate.

Qatar’s large population of migrant workers – roughly 88% of its total population – makes the country’s labor issues particularly tangled. A New York Times editorial published over the weekend knit the various issues together and called for major reforms:

Far too many of the estimated 1.2 million migrant workers in Qatar live in crowded, unsanitary conditions. Much of the blame rests with foreign middlemen and recruiters, who prey on the desperation of people in countries like Nepal. Workers are reduced to indentured servitude and are forced to work long hours in extreme temperatures. An alarming number of otherwise healthy young men from Nepal and India have died of heart attacks. Heat exhaustion, dehydration, malnutrition and untreated illness are blamed for other deaths. While rules exist requiring the fair treatment of migrant workers, they are casually enforced… migrant workers become the virtual property of their employers, forbidden from changing jobs or leaving the country without their sponsor’s permission.

This system needs to be reformed or eliminated to bring Qatar into compliance with international standards. Having selected Qatar, FIFA cannot be allowed to dodge its responsibility in making sure that the workers building the 2022 World Cup stadium are treated fairly.

[Photo: TheGuardian / YouTube ]