DHAKA: Qatar pledged to ensure respect for labourers’ rights after Amnesty International urged the state to end the ‘alarming’ abuse of migrants working on football World Cup infrastructure.

A 169-page Amnesty report called on world football governing body Fifa to press Qatar to improve labour conditions, alleging exploitation of the workers, mostly from South or Southeast Asia.

In response, the organising committee in Doha, which rejects claims of slavery-style conditions on construction sites in the world’s wealthiest nation per capita, pledged to impose respect for workers’ rights.

The Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee (Q22) said it had held ‘constructive’ talks with Amnesty on Sunday on the conditions of foreign labourers, and that the dialogue would continue right up to the tournament.

A ‘Workers’ Welfare Standards’ setting clear guidelines from recruitment to repatriation is to be issued at the end of this year, it said in a statement, reports gulfnews.com.

It stressed that compliance would be a contractual obligation for companies working on Q22 projects and would be robustly monitored.

In a report, however, Amnesty said its researchers had heard one construction firm manager use the term ‘animals’ to describe migrant workers.

Amnesty secretary-general Salil Shetty said the findings indicated ‘an alarming level of exploitation’ in Qatar, and called the abuses ‘widespread’ and ‘not isolated’.

‘Fifa has a duty to send a strong public message that it will not tolerate human rights abuses on construction projects related to the World Cup,’ he said.

BDST: 1410 HRS, NOV 19, 2013
RoR/BSK