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Less than three weeks before the tournament kicks off, the Qatar World Cup remains shrouded in controversy – largely due to the deaths of migrants constructing the stadiums under dreadful conditions. FRANCE 24 spoke to the co-author of a new book detailing their plight.
For Krishna Timislina, who worked for several years at construction sites for the Qatar World Cup, the conditions were “hell on earth”. Interviewed by French journalists Sébastian Castelier and Quentin Muller for their book “Les Esclaves de l’Homme Pétrole” (“The Oil Man’s Slaves”), Timislina said that with “precarious living conditions, terrible water quality and interminable shifts, we know our health is being damaged – but do we have a choice?”
“So much of Qatar is being built thanks to our work – stadiums, shopping malls, bridges and roads are being constructed – but we’re not invited to share in the dream,” Timislina, 36, lamented.
He recounted working at a frenetic pace (sometimes 18 hours a day in searing heat and powered by energy drinks), water of dubious quality, prefab housing without space or privacy, and – most harrowingly – people dying from accidents or exhaustion.
In going to Qatar, workers from developing countries like India, Pakistan, Nepal, Kenya and Sudan are playing “the Russian roulette of migration”, Castelier said. “They try their luck, knowing it’s not absolutely certain that something terrible will happen to them. They’re attracted by the high salaries – very high compared to their countries they come from. They see it as an economic opportunity that’s worth the risks.”
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Castelier and Muller gave a voice to many of them in their book, gathering some 60 testimonies. Qatar hosts nearly 400,000 migrant workers, often in conditions of modern-day slavery.
“It’s…
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Source : france24
