Nairobi, Kenya
DailyExpertNews
—
Boniface Barasa worked as a construction worker in Qatar for three years, but the lifelong football fan now says he was so traumatized by the experience that he was torn about watching matches during the World Cup.
Barasa, 38, says he witnessed a colleague die after he collapsed from the extreme heat, which can reach 120 degrees. He suspects that person may have been dehydrated due to the limited water breaks offered to the workers.
DailyExpertNews was unable to independently verify his claim.
He added: “I saw the supervisor call another Kenyan a lazy black monkey. When the Kenyan asked him, “Why do you call me a black monkey?” the supervisor hit him,” Barasa, who worked on the Lusail stadium, told DailyExpertNews.
His account echoes that of other foreign workers, mainly from South Asia and Africa, who have played an important role in preparing the country for the World Cup.
Authorities have acknowledged hundreds of deaths in construction and related industries in the 13 years since FIFA awarded the tournament to the Gulf state.
During the tournament, two migrant workers also died in unexplained circumstances.
On Dec. 10, 24-year-old Kenyan guard John Njue Kibue fell from the eighth floor of Lusail Stadium and died in hospital, his family told DailyExpertNews.
Another died in a resort used by Saudi Arabia during the group stage of the tournament.
Organizers say they are investigating Kibue’s death, bringing Qatar’s treatment of migrant workers back under scrutiny as the World Cup draws to a close.
While the investigation is ongoing, complaints from workers currently in Qatar continue, according to a migrant rights campaigner in Kenya, who says he has received thousands of messages from workers in the Gulf region.
Geoffrey Owino, 40, says he worked as a security officer in the country from 2018 until last June, when Qatari authorities expelled him.
He campaigned for migrants’ rights when he was there and still does.
Many of the complaints he receives range from withheld wages to physical assault, Owino told DailyExpertNews.
Owino says he has experienced firsthand the abuses faced by some migrant workers while working in Qatar.
In his first week in 2018, he said he was pressured to sign an employment contract that he had not read. He initially declined, but eventually signed on after reflecting on the $1,500 recruiting fee he paid an agent in Kenya to secure a job that promised $400 a month.
When he got there, he said he was only paid $200 a month and lived in a room with seven other people.
Owino says that as a safety inspector, he regularly spoke about construction workers at Lusail stadium working in extreme temperatures. But he was ignored, he says, as officials rushed to finish construction.
He said authorities detained him three times without giving a reason and sent him to a deportation camp because he complained about the mistreatment of his colleagues.
He says he contested deportation twice and was released. But after the authorities detained him for a third time, he said he gave up and was deported from the country.
DailyExpertNews has reached out to the government of Qatar for comment on the working conditions of migrants in the country, as well as Owino’s claims, but a Qatari government official previously told DailyExpertNews that all claims that workers were “imprisoned or deported without explanation” are false. goods.
Now back in Nairobi, Owino’s fight for fair treatment of migrants in Qatar has earned him the nickname “Mr. Labour” and Owino says he continues to help workers abroad and advocates for compensation from bodies such as FIFA for them.
Owino also partners with Equidem, a human rights and human rights organization, to document the experiences of workers who have returned to Kenya. He spends time in the Gachie district, on the outskirts of the capital Nairobi.
Once known for crime and gang violence, the low-income district has since become a prime target for recruiters promising lucrative opportunities in the Middle East.
The promises are tempting given Kenya’s high unemployment rate, which is the highest in East Africa at 5.7%.
Equidem is investigating claims of mistreatment by current and former migrant workers across the Gulf, but in a report last month targeting Qatar, Equidem revealed widespread abuses, including forced labour, unpaid wages, nationality discrimination and systemic abuse in interviews with 60 migrant workers working in the World Cup stadiums.
In a written response to the report, the World Cup organizers said it was “full of inaccuracies” and highlighted the measures taken to protect workers and the progress the country has made with reforms, noting that “their commitment for ensuring the health, safety and dignity of workers” has been “steadfast” since construction began.
The Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy went on to say that while “there is always room for improvement…. the report provides a completely unbalanced picture of significant progress versus the inevitable challenges that remain,” adding, “We have always been transparent about our challenges and progress throughout our journey and maintain an open dialogue with all our stakeholders.”
Qatar’s World Cup chief Hassan Al-Thawadi said in a British TV interview last month that between 400 and 500 migrant workers had died trying to get the Gulf nation ready for the World Cup, a far larger number than authorities had previously estimated. admitted. . But he said only a handful of deaths were directly related to stadium construction.
Qatar has taken steps toward reform in response to criticism, signing an agreement with the International Labor Organization (ILO) in 2017.
For example, it dismantled the state sponsorship system known as the kafala and gave workers the freedom to change jobs before the end of a contract without their employer’s consent.
It also became the first country in the region to introduce a non-discriminatory minimum wage and a policy requiring employers to pay workers on time. And it has adopted a new health and safety and inspection policy.
Qatar has been praised for the measures it has taken to better protect migrant workers. Last month, however, the ILO acknowledged that more needed to be done as there were continued reports of vulnerable workers facing retaliation from employers and wage arrears.
As the World Cup kicked off, some black migrant workers took on highly visible roles in a country where they are often invisible – part of the workforce, but not of society.
Kenyan Abubaker Abbas – also known as “Metro man” – became a social media sensation for showing fans the route to the subway with a foam finger and a megaphone.
Tournament organizers raised the profile of the 23-year-old Kenyan in an apparent effort to counter criticism of Qatar’s treatment of migrant workers.
He even entered the pitch as a surprise guest for the much-anticipated England vs. USA match, leading the packed stadium in chants of “Metro!”
Elsewhere in Doha, another Kenyan, Dennis Kamau, also enjoys internet fame as an enthusiastic traffic warden, dancing as he directs cars and pedestrians to the games.
However, the spectacle contradicts the stark reality for those working behind the scenes, said Malcolm Bidali, a Kenyan migrant rights defender and former security guard in Qatar who sought to expose the working and living conditions of migrants.
He describes conditions in the subway station where Abbas sent fans as appalling for migrant workers.
Bidali says Qatar authorities placed him in solitary confinement in 2021 after he campaigned on social media for better conditions for migrant workers.
The government of Qatar has charged him with allegedly taking money from “foreign agents” for his work with international NGOs and accused him of spreading disinformation online
After organizations such as Amnesty International campaigned for his release, he was eventually released. The traumatic ordeal led him to leave Qatar, he said.
Bidali says he is concerned about the fate of Qatar’s workers once the World Cup is over and attention fades. He fears that workers’ rights are being restricted without any accountability.
“At the moment, we still have people who are not paid, people still live in cramped conditions, we still have people who face physical, verbal, sexual violence, discrimination, long hours and terrible working conditions,” Bidali said.