FIFA, US Companies, Cited For Squalid Labor Conditions In Qatar

A more than year-old report from DLA Piper, commissioned by the Qatar government, found serious and rampant labor abuse, in some cases amounting to indentured servitude, in the Gulf nation. The report was expected to bring some changes, but critics are faulting the Qatar government for ignoring it. U.S. companies are said to be involved, indirectly through subcontractors, in the exploitation of workers who come primarily from Bangladesh, India, Nepal and the Philippines. The extent to which abuses extend to subcontractors on the stadium site is in dispute, but the New York Times reports it was a Republican senator from Kansas who made the connection during a subcommittee hearing on corruption in the international soccer organization. Senator Jerry Moran, chairman of the Senate Commerce subcommittee on consumer protection, said that FIFA’s “culture of corruption is turning a blind eye to significant human rights violations and the tragic loss of lives.”