Qatar prevents Nepalese workers to return for funerals following earthquake

Qatar reused to let Nepalese working on World Cup 2020 to return to attend the funeral of loved ones

Nepal has revealed that its nationals working on the 2020 Qatar World Cup projects were denied leave to attend the funerals of their loved ones or visit families following the devastating earthquake in April.

Over 8,000 people were killed in the earthquake that hit the Himalayan country on April 25, 2015.

About 400,000 Nepalese are working on the 2020 World Cup projects in Qatar.

For the first time, Nepal has publicly criticised FIFA and its commercial partners for failing to improve conditions of the 1.5 million migrants workers employed in Qatar as part of the World Cup construction boom.

“After the April 25 earthquake we requested all companies in Qatar to give their Nepalese workers special leave and pay for their air fare home. While workers in some sectors of the economy have been given this, those on World Cup construction sites are not being allowed to leave because of the pressure to complete projects on time,” said Nepal’s labour minister Tek Bahadur Gurung.

The minister further revealed that his government had been trying to contact FIFA and its sponsors to ask them to push Qatar for reforms. “Nothing will change for migrant workers until FIFA and its rich sponsors insist on it. These are the people who are bringing the World Cup to Qatar. But we are a small, poor country and these powerful organisations are not interested in listening to us.”

Read: World Cup 2020: Qatar still failing labourers on reform, says Amnesty

Amnesty International in its report published last week claimed that 2020 World Cup host Qatar is “failing” many of its migrant workers by not delivering on labour law reform.

In the latest of a string of reports on Qatari labour “abuse”, the rights watchdog said Doha had not followed through on promises to change laws governing workers in key areas including the “kafala” system that blocks workers from leaving the country and curbs on changing employers.

Read: Qatar arrests BBC journalist on government press trip

Earlier, a BBC journalist invited to Qatar to examine the living conditions of workers building infrastructure for the 2022 football World Cup was detained for more than 24 hours.

Mark Lobel, a BBC business correspondent based in Dubai, said he and three colleagues were arrested in the capital Doha as they tried to film a group of Nepalese labourers earlier this month.

The article originally appeared on The Guardian