Red Card: FIFA Continues to Avoid Accountability for the Abuse of Migrant Workers in Qatar

Navya Baradi

The Issue

The FIFA World Cup brings together fans from around the globe to celebrate the world’s most popular sport. However, in 2022, the tournament also mobilized global human rights activists given FIFA's controversial choice of host. At issue was the treatment of migrant workers that built the stadiums and infrastructure in Qatar, migrants principally from Bangladesh, India, and Nepal seeking to escape unemployment and poverty in their home countries.[1] Workers paid expensive recruitment fees to secure these jobs. Once their work began, they faced poor living conditions, salary theft, residence permit issues, mobility issues, and intimidation from their employers, who held their passports hostage.[2]

Even when consumer markets demand that businesses implement sustainable and fair practices, their responses can be unpredictable. FIFA adopted a Sustainability Strategy for the World Cup in 2022.[3] However, they nonetheless chose a host country that lacked necessary  infrastructure and domestic labour to complete construction on time, and whose strict immigration and weak migrant labour laws have long given rise to human rights abuses.[4] Migrant workers lack labour protections under Qatar’s kafala system, which allows employers to prevent migrant worker employees from the right to unionise, change jobs or leave the country of their own accord.[5] The migrant workers who built FIFA infrastructure were forced to work in extreme conditions, and predictably, employers exploited them under threat of deportation.[6] Even after adopting a human rights policy for the event, FIFA did not take steps to mitigate Qatar's reliance on migrant workers.[7]

The Lawsuit

Attempts to hold FIFA legally accountable for these violations have yet to yield results. FIFA accepted Qatar's bid in 2010, and the organisation has been fighting legal claims regarding the alleged abuse of migrant workers in Qatar since December 2016. In a transnational lawsuit, the Federation of Dutch Trade Unions (FNV), Bangladeshi Free Trade Union Congress, Bangladesh Building and Wood Workers Federation, and a Bangladeshi worker filed a lawsuit in Switzerland against FIFA, alleging that the organisation was complicit in Qatar's human rights violations.[8]

Before filing the lawsuit in early December of 2016, the trade unions gave FIFA three weeks' notice to acknowledge its responsibility and voluntarily compensate the alleged victims.[9] Despite the relatively modest claim of USD 3,170, a successful case would have set a strong precedent for hundreds of migrant workers to claim for the injustices they have faced.[10] Claimants argued that FIFA had a duty to adequately examine Qatar’s human rights record before selecting Doha as their 2022 host, stemming from their obligation under Swiss law, Qatari law and international law to respect fundamental human rights.[11] The claimants argued that FIFA failed to uphold this duty because FIFA did not demand assurances from Qatar that they would uphold the minimum human and labour rights for migrant construction workers.[12]

In January of 2017, the Commercial Court in Zurich dismissed the lawsuit for three reasons. First, they considered the claims of abuse vague since they did not identify the Qatari authorities that could redress the workers' conditions.[13] It further determined that requesting that the Court declare the violations unlawful would make it impossible for FIFA to defend itself.[14] Lastly, the Court claimed that providing damages was not under its jurisdiction.[15] 

FIFA has maintained that it cannot be held responsible for the working conditions in Qatar but hopes to use the World Cup to facilitate changes regarding the developments of stadiums and sites for future hosts.[16] The improvements undertaken by the Qatari government as an attempt to appease human rights concerns have been sluggish and lack comprehensiveness.[17] In the six years between the 2016 lawsuit and the tournament’s starting whistle, hundreds of migrant workers continued to die under suspicious circumstances.[18]

The Path Forward

Even though the Swiss Court dismissed this lawsuit, FIFA is facing continuing pressure from international organisations such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International to compensate migrant workers for the abuse endured and unexplained deaths.[19] Based on the 2017 decision, it is uncertain if the Courts can provide proper recourse for the situation, but there may be hope for claims with greater clarity and possibly in different jurisdictions. Beyond legal recourse, consumers must continue demanding more sustainable practices from multinational organisations such as a legacy fund provided by FIFA to compensate the families that endured the human rights violations.[20] The 2022 World Cup serves as a reminder that the legal system is only one path of many towards a just future for migrant workers rights.

Navya Baradi is a 1L student pursuing a B.C.L/J.D at McGill Law. She has a B.Com from the University of Alberta which sparked her passion for the intersection of sustainable business, economics, and human rights. In life beyond the late library nights, she loves to dance and explore the city. Special thank you to Ella Johnson for her support in writing this article.

[1] See “Qatar World Cup of Shame” (31 March 2016), online: Amnesty International <https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2016/03/qatar-world-cup-of-shame/> [Shame].

[2] Ibid.

[3] See FIFA, “IF Sustainability Project FIFA World Cup 2022 Sustainability Strategy” (2022), online (pdf): International Olympic Committee <https://stillmed.olympics.com/media/Document%20Library/OlympicOrg/IOC/What-We-Do/celebrate-olympic-games/Sustainability/Case-Studies/2020/fifa-world-cup-2022-sustainability-strategy.pdf>.

[4] See “Qatar: Rights Abuses Stain FIFA World Cup” (14 November 2022), online: Human Rights Watch <https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/11/14/qatar-rights-abuses-stain-fifa-world-cup> [Stain]; Cathryn Grothe “The Long Shadow of Qatar’s Human Rights Abuses” (7 December 2022), online: Freedom House <https://freedomhouse.org/article/long-shadow-qatars-human-rights-abuses#:~:text=The%20Deadly%20Cost%20of%20World%20Cup%20Construction&text=In%20recent%20years%2C%20it%20has,situations%2C%20and%20wage%2Dtheft> [Shadow]; there is much to consider in terms of whether FIFA has ever considered human rights violations when choosing a bid as many voices from the Middle East have criticized the hypocrisy of undermining Qatar for its human rights violations while the US has committed its own violations against international actors. See more at Belén Fernández “The massive hypocrisy of the West’s World Cup ‘concerns’”, Al Jazeera (28 November 2022), online: <https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/11/28/the-massive-hypocrisy-of-the-wests-world-cup-concerns>.

[5] Qatar uses a sponsorship system called kafala. See more at Shadow, supra note 4.

[6] See Priyanka Motaparthy, “Understanding Kafala: An archaic law at cross purposes with modern development” (11 March 2015), online: Migrant-Rights.Org <https://www.migrant-rights.org/2015/03/understanding-kafala-an-archaic-law-at-cross-purposes-with-modern-development/> [Kafala]; Shame, supra note 1.

[7] See Paul MacInnes “Fifa accused of failing to adhere to its own human rights commitments”, The Guardian (12 December 2022) online: <https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/dec/12/fifa-accused-of-failing-to-adhere-to-its-own-human-rights-commitments>. 

[8] See “FIFA lawsuit (re migrant workers, Qatar)” (8 December 2016), online: Business and Human Rights Resource Center <https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/fifa-lawsuit-re-migrant-workers-qatar/> [FIFA lawsuit].

[9] Ibid.

[10] See Owen Gibson “Fifa faces legal challenge over Qatar migrant workers”, The Guardian (10 October 2016), online: <https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/oct/10/fifa-faces-legal-challenge-over-qatar-migrant-workers-world-cup-2022>.

[11] Ibid.

[12] Ibid.

[13] FIFA lawsuit, supra note 8.

[14] Ibid.

[15] Ibid.

[16] Stain, supra note 4.

[17] Kafala, supra note 6.

[18] Michael Page & Minky Worden, “Qatar World Cup Chief Publicly Admits High Migrant Death Tolls” (30 November 2022), online: Human Rights Watch <https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/11/30/qatar-world-cup-chief-publicly-admits-high-migrant-death-tolls>.

[19] “FIFA/Qatar: Migrant Workers Call for Compensation for Abuses” (17 November 2022), online: Human Rights Watch <https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/11/17/fifa/qatar-migrant-workers-call-compensation-abuses>.

[20] Washington Post Editorial Board “This was a World Cup of human rights horrors”, The Washington Post (17 December 2022), online: <https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/17/world-cup-2022-qatar-human-rights-horrors/>.