“We were working on an empty stomach for 24 hours; 12 hours’ work and then no food all night. When I complained, my manager assaulted me, kicked me out of the labour camp I lived in and refused to pay me anything. I had to beg for food from other workers.” – Ram Kumar Mahara, 27, construction worker.
Preparations for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar have brought to light the modern slave trade being used to build tournament infrastructure.
Qatar’s labour force is 94 percent migrant and mainly employed under the notorious Kafala sponsorship system. Qatari businesses rely on workers from the Philippines, Nepal, Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, who take out loans to move to Qatar. The dreams for these workers are the promise of high wages and being able to send money home to their impoverished families.
For many the dream becomes a nightmare once they arrive. “It is the same old story”, said Nicholas McGeehan of Human Rights Watch, speaking to CNN in April, “the Kafala system, the confiscation of passports, the illegal charging of exorbitant agent fees, the inability for workers to access the courts for redress.
“Qatar has an exit visa system so you cannot leave the country without the sponsor’s say. You have a system where workers are trapped in the country and the same old abuses rear their head. Unpaid wages, wages held in arrears. It keeps workers incredibly vulnerable.”
Sharan Burrow, general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), also speaking to CNN, said, “These men are basically slaves … The legal system doesn’t work, their contracts are torn up at a whim. These men are very angry. They feel like their lives are being taken away.”
Under pressure from widespread outrage at working conditions, FIFA has made public statements lamenting the treatment of migrant workers. But the World Cup’s governing body has been at pains to distance itself from any influence over the brutal employment arrangements, under which 44 Nepalese workers died between 4 June and 8 August this year.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter claims that there is “plenty of time” to address labour rights issues in Qatar. With almost 90 percent of FIFA’s revenue coming from the Cup, he is in no hurry.
But time is not on the side of the modern slaves forced to build the shining stadiums. Without major improvements, the ITUC estimates that 4,000 are likely to die before the first ball is kicked in 2022.
The World Cup is considered an honour for the host nation, but the benefits have only ever flowed to the rich. In 2010 South African corporations made millions as the state poured money into World Cup preparations while scores of poor communities remained under-serviced and underdeveloped.
In Brazil this year protesters hit the streets in their tens of thousands because money that had never been found for public services flowed freely to finance the World Cup.
The Qatari government is just the latest to cash in at the expense of workers and the poor.

Jayesh Maharaj

FIFA and slave labour in Qatar

Emergency services are battling to contain more than 100 fires throughout NSW. One man is dead, the result of a heart attack while defending his house, and more than 200 homes have been destroyed.
The CSIRO estimates that on average one life is lost for every 17 homes burnt down in bushfires. That the death toll at this point is not higher is testament to the work being done by firefighters and volunteers.
Containing bushfires in extreme conditions is dangerous enough. The task has been made even more difficult by the O’Farrell government’s budget cuts to fire services. The state government is ripping $64 million out of NSW Bushfire Response over four years, beginning in the 2013 financial year with $7.6 million.
Like all emergency responses, firefighting places great demands on workers. For the budget targets to be met, the cost will ultimately fall upon the firefighters, resulting in deterioration in their conditions.
The cuts have forced the closure of numerous fire stations throughout the state. The Fire Brigade Employees Union reported that fire stations in “Camden, Riverwood, Miranda, Mona Vale and Ryde were closed because of budget cuts and crews from Macquarie Fields, Ashfield, Botany and Newtown covered the areas, leaving their own fire stations vacant”.
A risky policy of placing fire stations temporarily offline has been forced upon Fire and Rescue NSW. Permanently staffed stations are being closed for the first time in history under the O’Farrell government. FBEU state secretary Jim Casey expressed concern that such a policy leaves firefighters stretched:
“Current budget cuts mean the state government is treating fire protection like a game of musical chairs, shuffling resources around the city … At some stage the music will stop and it will be left exposed, with communities around Sydney and the state the ones that will suffer.
“The FBEU is urging the NSW government to lift these budget cuts”, Casey continued, “and end the practice of temporarily closing fire stations, especially with the experts warning of a dangerous fire season ahead”.
The budget cuts also extend to the Rural Fire Services, putting further stress on volunteer firefighters to alleviate the pressure on the already short-handed permanent staff. The NSW RFS has more than 70,000 volunteers but only 1,000 salaried staff. The commitment of volunteer firefighters comes at a great individual cost.
The state has not shown the same commitment to them. Funding to the Rural Fire Service has been cut from $307m in 2010-11 to $287m in 2011-12 and will be slashed by a further 3.1 percent in 2013.
These cuts come as the leaked “second-order draft” document of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) second working group has warned: “Climate change is expected to increase the number of days with very high and extreme fire weather” in Australia. Dealing with bushfires, it warns, “will become increasingly challenging”.
Meanwhile, the federal government has tightened eligibility for recovery payments for those affected by the fires.
The NSW premier has declared a state of emergency, giving emergency services the power to cut off utilities and force evacuations in response to the raging bushfire crisis.
But his government is quite prepared, as Casey puts it, to play “Russian roulette” with the state’s emergency services and people’s lives.

FIFA and slave labour in Qatar

Climate and cuts a deadly mix in NSW

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