F*****1
发帖数: 779 | 1 酋长们也太没人性了。50多度下工作，一班12小时还不给喝水，，下班没饭吃。两个月
至少累死了44个外籍劳工。
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/25/revealed-qatars-wo
Dozens of Nepalese migrant labourers have died in Qatar in recent weeks and
thousands more are enduring appalling labour abuses, a Guardian
investigation has found, raising serious questions about Qatar's
preparations to host the 2022 World Cup.
This summer, Nepalese workers died at a rate of almost one a day in Qatar,
many of them young men who had sudden heart attacks. The investigation found
evidence to suggest that thousands of Nepalese, who make up the single
largest group of labourers in Qatar, face exploitation and abuses that
amount to modern-day slavery, as defined by the International Labour
Organisation, during a building binge paving the way for 2022.
According to documents obtained from the Nepalese embassy in Doha, at least
44 workers died between 4 June and 8 August. More than half died of heart
attacks, heart failure or workplace accidents.
The investigation also reveals:
• Evidence of forced labour on a huge World Cup infrastructure project.
• Some Nepalese men have alleged that they have not been paid for
months and have had their salaries retained to stop them running away.
• Some workers on other sites say employers routinely confiscate
passports and refuse to issue ID cards, in effect reducing them to the
status of illegal aliens.
• Some labourers say they have been denied access to free drinking
water in the desert heat.
• About 30 Nepalese sought refuge at their embassy in Doha to escape
the brutal conditions of their employment.
The allegations suggest a chain of exploitation leading from poor Nepalese
villages to Qatari leaders. The overall picture is of one of the richest
nations exploiting one of the poorest to get ready for the world's most
popular sporting tournament.
"We'd like to leave, but the company won't let us," said one Nepalese
migrant employed at Lusail City development, a $45bn (￡28bn) city being
built from scratch which will include the 90,000-seater stadium that will
host the World Cup final. "I'm angry about how this company is treating us,
but we're helpless. I regret coming here, but what to do? We were compelled
to come just to make a living, but we've had no luck."
The body tasked with organising the World Cup, the Qatar 2022 Supreme
Committee, told the Guardian that work had yet to begin on projects directly
related to the World Cup. However, it said it was "deeply concerned with
the allegations that have been made against certain contractors/sub-
contractors working on Lusail City's construction site and considers this
issue to be of the utmost seriousness". It added: "We have been informed
that the relevant government authorities are conducting an investigation
into the allegations."
The Guardian's investigation also found men throughout the wider Qatari
construction industry sleeping 12 to a room in places and getting sick
through repulsive conditions in filthy hostels. Some say they have been
forced to work without pay and left begging for food.
"We were working on an empty stomach for 24 hours; 12 hours' work and then
no food all night," said Ram Kumar Mahara, 27. "When I complained, my
manager assaulted me, kicked me out of the labour camp I lived in and
refused to pay me anything. I had to beg for food from other workers."
Almost all migrant workers have huge debts from Nepal, accrued in order to
pay recruitment agents for their jobs. The obligation to repay these debts,
combined with the non-payment of wages, confiscation of documents and
inability of workers to leave their place of work, constitute forced labour,
a form of modern-day slavery estimated to affect up to 21 million people
across the globe. So entrenched is this exploitation that the Nepalese
ambassador to Qatar, Maya Kumari Sharma, recently described the emirate as
an "open jail".
"The evidence uncovered by the Guardian is clear proof of the use of
systematic forced labour in Qatar," said Aidan McQuade, director of Anti-
Slavery International, which was founded in 1839. "In fact, these working
conditions and the astonishing number of deaths of vulnerable workers go
beyond forced labour to the slavery of old where human beings were treated
as objects. There is no longer a risk that the World Cup might be built on
forced labour. It is already happening."
Qatar has the highest ratio of migrant workers to domestic population in the
world: more than 90% of the workforce are immigrants and the country is
expected to recruit up to 1.5 million more labourers to build the stadiums,
roads, ports and hotels needed for the tournament. Nepalese account for
about 40% of migrant labourers in Qatar. More than 100,000 Nepalese left for
the emirate last year.
The murky system of recruitment brokers in Asia and labour contractors in
Qatar leaves them vulnerable to exploitation. The supreme committee has
insisted that decent labour standards will be set for all World Cup
contracts, but underneath it a complex web of project managers, construction
firms and labour suppliers, employment contractors and recruitment agents
operate.
According to some estimates, Qatar will spend $100bn on infrastructure
projects to support the World Cup. As well as nine state-of-the-art stadiums
, the country has committed to $20bn worth of new roads, $4bn for a causeway
connecting Qatar to Bahrain, $24bn for a high-speed rail network, and 55,
000 hotel rooms to accommodate visiting fans and has almost completed a new
airport.
The World Cup is part of an even bigger programme of construction in Qatar
designed to remake the tiny desert kingdom over the next two decades. Qatar
has yet to start building stadiums for 2022, but has embarked on the big
infrastructure projects likesuch as Lusail City that, according to the US
project managers, Parsons, "will play a major role during the 2022 Fifa
World Cup". The British engineering company Halcrow, part of the CH2M Hill
group, is a lead consultant on the Lusail project responsible for "
infrastructure design and construction supervision". CH2M Hill was recently
appointed the official programme management consultant to the supreme
committee. It says it has a "zero tolerance policy for the use of forced
labour and other human trafficking practices".
Halcrow said: "Our supervision role of specific construction packages
ensures adherence to site contract regulation for health, safety and
environment. The terms of employment of a contractor's labour force is not
under our direct purview."
Some Nepalese working at Lusail City tell desperate stories. They are
saddled with huge debts they are paying back at interest rates of up to 36%,
yet say they are forced to work without pay.
"The company has kept two months' salary from each of us to stop us running
away," said one man who gave his name as SBD and who works at the Lusail
City marina. SBD said he was employed by a subcontractor that supplies
labourers for the project. Some workers say their subcontrator has
confiscated their passports and refused to issue the ID cards they are
entitled to under Qatari law. "Our manager always promises he'll issue [our
cards] 'next week'," added a scaffolder who said he had worked in Qatar for
two years without being given an ID card.
Without official documentation, migrant workers are in effect reduced to the
status of illegal aliens, often unable to leave their place of work without
fear of arrest and not entitled to any legal protection. Under the state-
run kafala sponsorship system, workers are also unable to change jobs or
leave the country without their sponsor company's permission.
A third worker, who was equally reluctant to give his name for fear of
reprisal, added: "We'd like to leave, but the company won't let us. If we
run away, we become illegal and that makes it hard to find another job. The
police could catch us at any time and send us back home. We can't get a
resident permit if we leave."
Other workers said they were forced to work long hours in temperatures of up
to 50C (122F) without access to drinking water.
The Qatari labour ministry said it had strict rules governing working in the
heat, the provision of labour and the prompt payment of salaries.
"The ministry enforces this law through periodic inspections to ensure that
workers have in fact received their wages in time. If a company does not
comply with the law, the ministry applies penalties and refers the case to
the judicial authorities."
Lusail Real Estate Company said: "Lusail City will not tolerate breaches of
labour or health and safety law. We continually instruct our contractors and
their subcontractors of our expectations and their contractual obligations
to both us and individual employees. The Guardian have highlighted
potentially illegal activities employed by one subcontractor. We take these
allegations very seriously and have referred the allegations to the
appropriate authorities for investigation. Based on this investigation, we
will take appropriate action against any individual or company who has found
to have broken the law or contract with us."
The workers' plight makes a mockery of concerns for the 2022 footballers.
"Everyone is talking about the effect of Qatar's extreme heat on a few
hundred footballers," said Umesh Upadhyaya, general secretary of the General
Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions. "But they are ignoring the hardships,
blood and sweat of thousands of migrant workers, who will be building the
World Cup stadiums in shifts that can last eight times the length of a
football match." | x******h
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发帖数: 2959 | 4 真恐怖，米国是不是应该干涉一把，这届世界杯得抵制啊 |
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