– Why does Fifa want to go out with this number? They should show a little more humility to the documentation that has come from other organisations, says Jostein Hole Kobbeltvedt. He is the day-to-day manager of the Raftostiftelsen, and says Fifa’s figures stand in stark contrast to the independent reports on the situation in Qatar. – Fifa would have been keen to show that they as an organization are learning. They clearly said no to that when they presented these speeches, he says to news. GENTLENESS: Jostein Hole Kobbeltvedt in the Raftostiftelsen calls for more humility from Fifa. Photo: Leif Rune Løland / news Last week, the International Football Association (FIFA) announced that three people had died during the construction of the stadium for the World Cup in Qatar. But in the past, among others, the reliable newspaper The Guardian has claimed that more than 6,500 migrant workers have lost their lives in Qatar since the awarding of the championship in 2010. Fifa’s figures agree with what the Qatari authorities have previously reported. 37 workers who worked at a World Cup arena are said to have died, but it is therefore claimed that only three of these have died as a direct consequence of working at an arena. Project manager at Amnesty Frank Conde Tangberg believes that the speech from Fifa and Qatar is misleading. – A fundamental problem is that they do not investigate the deaths thoroughly enough. Therefore, in most cases we do not know the cause of death. Many death certificates indicate acute respiratory failure or cardiac arrest. But everyone stops breathing when someone dies. Everyone’s heart stops beating, he says and continues: – The big question is why it happens. It is very likely that the cause of death in many cases is that migrant workers have worked in strong heat, in high humidity and have long working days without rest. MISLEADING: Frank Conde Tangberg of Amnesty believes that the speech to Fifa is misleading. Photo: Private – Unsettling Tongberg believes it is important to know that Fifa and Qatar have a different understanding of which workers they have a human rights responsibility for than what Amnesty believes they are responsible for. – Fifa and Qatar take care of only one to 2 percent of the total number of migrant workers in Qatar. Namely those who work directly on the Fifa project, and they therefore claim that only around thirty migrant workers have died on their project, while only three of these were work-related. Kobbeltvedt in the Raftostiftelsen thinks it is worrying that Fifa uncritically uses the speech they receive from the Qatari authorities. – It has been shown many times in this process, from the awarding and right up to now, that information from Qatar should not be given so much weight, says Kobbeltvedt and claims: – That Fifa does not wish to distance itself from this is worrying. Here I think Fifa should be more humble and use other documentation instead to stand so loyally behind Qatar. news has been in contact with Fifa and the Supreme Committee for a comment on the matter. The latter refers to their website, where it is claimed that a number of measures have been taken to improve the conditions of the migrant workers. Among other things, it is claimed that from 1 June to 15 September it is not allowed to work outside from 10.00 to 15.30. They also write that the workers are now not allowed to work outside if it is over 32.1 degrees Celsius. They also make the following comment to news: – All work-related deaths and non-work-related deaths are captured in these reports. We have been open about these problems since day one, writes the Supreme Committee. Emir hard against “campaign” The host nation recently claimed that they have used over 30,000 migrant workers just to build the seven arenas that will be used during the football World Cup. – Since we received the honor of hosting the World Cup, Qatar has been exposed to a campaign that no other World Cup host has faced, asserts Qatar’s head of state, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani. – We initially accepted the criticism in good faith, and we even considered some of it as positive and constructive, that he could help us develop aspects that need to be addressed. But then it became clear to us that the campaign continues and is being expanded, and he contains both fabrication and double standards, the emir claims. EMIR: Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani believes Qatar has been exposed to a campaign like no other World Cup host. Photo: Vyacheslav Prokofyev / AP The speech to the emir causes Tangberg to react strongly. – The harsher the rhetoric they use, the greater the disclaimer. Fifa is an instigator of this, and they must stop hiding. Migrant workers make up over 90 per cent of the workforce in Qatar and are vulnerable to these human rights violations, he says. He also strongly criticizes how they have handled the criticism they have received from football clubs, football associations and human rights organisations. – FIFA and Qatar have consistently played down the number of deaths and tried to cast doubt on their own responsibility. But when the Emir talks about campaigning against the WC in Qatar, it seems as if we would not run campaigns against other organisers. That’s not true. We work a lot with business and human rights responsibility for sport.
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– They must stop hiding – news Sport – Sports news, results and broadcast schedule
