Migrant workers suffer from coronavirus-safe conditions in Qatar

Work is continuing to complete infrastructure buildings for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar and many workers from South Asia are on the front lines of the devastating coronavirus pandemic, which has already killed more than 103,000 people and affected more than 1.7 million worldwide.

Qatar has so far suffered six deaths and more than 2,500 diagnosed cases in a scenario like the current one in which there are more than 2 million foreign workers on Qatari territory, a significant figure given that the country's total population is only 2.6 million. The situation is aggravated by the overcrowded camps where migrants live and by the pressures on development in the run-up to the World Cup; factors which have placed foreign workers in Qatar at particularly high risk of contracting VIDOC-19.

With just over two years to go before the World Cup in Qatar, migrant workers have been working on stadium and infrastructure projects worth an estimated $200 billion; and although the Qatari authorities have closed down all public spaces, construction workers continue to work on various projects despite the emergence of hundreds of cases of VIDOC-19.
 

In recent months, there has been a large increase in the number of migrant workers in Qatar due to the development of facilities linked to the upcoming World Cup in 2022. Many of them come from South Asia and almost all of them are suffering from the spread of VIDOC-19, which adds to difficult subsistence conditions as they are living in overcrowded and very modest housing and lack basic health care and proper nutrition. 

On 11 March, 238 migrants living in a residential area within an industrial zone made up of factories, warehouses and workers' accommodation on the outskirts of Doha, the capital of Qatar, tested positive for the coronavirus. Since then, dozens more cases have been identified that appear to be related to the initial outbreak.
 

But there are no official data on this scourge because the government does not provide figures on how many of those infected are foreign workers. Some migrants are even afraid to come forward to report their symptoms. "Many migrants are concerned about being deported if they test positive for VIDOC-19, so there is a fear that they will not report the symptoms or get tested, feeling compelled to work with the virus and endangering their own health and that of others," said Elizabeth Frantz, division director of the Open Society Foundation's International Migration Initiative, in statements reported by Foreign Policy. "There must be guarantees that migrant workers who come forward and report symptoms or test positive will not be deported. They must be assured that they will not lose their jobs if they are ill," he said. 

Although the authorities in this Middle Eastern country repeatedly deny these versions and ensure that they send all the necessary materials to workers destined for these industrial and work zones to guarantee their safety and health in the face of the current global pandemic.
 

On the other hand, according to the publication Al-Ain, the works for the World Cup 2022 were momentarily paralyzed after registering several positive for coronavirus among the construction workers employed in the stadiums. Much of Doha's industrial zone had to be cordoned off and hundreds of workers have since been confined within the industrial compounds, in a sort of overcrowded camps. Many of them have been forced to sign an unpaid permit, so that the state only covers their accommodation and food.

Their living conditions are partly unhealthy; many of them live in one room in up to ten; they have no electricity and, more seriously, no access to running water. 
 

This overcrowding leads to the spread of VIDOC-19 within a scenario of lack of health care for those infected, something denounced by international institutions such as Amnesty International.

Qatar has a long history of abuse and exploitation of migrant workers, which has been widely condemned internationally in recent years, while South Asian governments are unable to exert sufficient pressure to achieve good labour protection for the labour force posted there. These Asian nations may be silent about the economic benefits to government coffers of remittances from workers abroad. This situation does not only concern Qatar; some 35 million migrants are employed in the six countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), in Jordan and in Lebanon, and cases of exploitation have been documented by various sources and means. 

Testimonies of people affected by the harsh working conditions in Qatar had already been posted on social networks and were drawing the world's attention. Since work began on the World Cup facilities six years ago, 34 migrants have lost their lives. Of those 34 deaths, 31 have been classified as "non-work related", a term largely used to describe sudden deaths from unexplained heart or respiratory failure. 

Hundreds more die each year while working on other construction projects. As with the World Cup deaths, the Government of Qatar attributes most of these to cardiovascular causes or cases of natural death. Despite the fact that young, healthy people are among those affected. 
 

Research published last year in the journal Cardiology explored the relationship between heat exposure and the death of more than 1,300 Nepalese workers over a nine-year period up to 2017. Climatologists and cardiologists found a strong correlation between heat stress and the death of young workers from cardiovascular problems in the summer months. 

Of Qatar's migrant population, some 700,000 are Indians, 400,000 Nepalese and 400,000 Bangladeshis. This is therefore a problem of severely affected working conditions throughout South Asia.