FIFA review of Qatar World Cup abuse claims must not delay compensation for workers

Responding to a pledge made by FIFA at the organization’s annual congress today in Kigali, where it agreed to hold a review into whether existing remedies for the abuses suffered by thousands of workers who helped deliver the 2022 World Cup in Qatar are sufficient, Steve Cockburn, Amnesty International’s Head of Economic and Social Justice, said:
“While FIFA has recognized that it needs to address the question of remedy for workers who suffered to make the 2022 World Cup possible, it is abundantly clear that many thousands of workers have been unable to obtain compensation for horrific abuses linked to the World Cup. FIFA must not seek to kick their claims for remedy into the long grass with a lengthy re-examination of well-established facts. Workers have already waited far too long for justice.

“Any review must focus on exactly how FIFA will ensure that workers and their families are compensated for the abuses they suffered — including illegal recruitment fees that have been paid, wages that were stolen and lives that have been lost — rather than whether they intend to do so at all. Anything less would be a blatant whitewashing of FIFA’s responsibilities to the people who suffered most while the organization made billions.

“We welcome the efforts of national Football Associations who have championed the rights of workers and reminded FIFA of its own human rights commitments. We urge them to continue to do so until justice is achieved. Together, we will campaign to ensure workers and their families receive the compensation they deserve.”