More controversy surrounds Qatar World Cup: Around 1000 Indian workers died during preparations

Ardent football fans across the globe are enjoying the 22^nd edition of the FIFA World Cup as the thrill and contest between the participating teams are at their peak. The tournament witnessed some shocking upsets in the beginning when it all started with Argentina’s shocking defeat against Saudi Arabia and then some shocks for a few other big teams as well.

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But apart from the action of football, there is a side of the Qatar World Cup that has caught the eyeballs of the entire World and left them in shock. An analysis of the Guardian has learned that the construction related to the World Cup 2022 witnessed a huge number of deaths of migrant workers during the time frame between 2011 and 2020.

Initially, the authorities went on to clear that 37 deaths were recorded that were related directly to the construction of the stadiums for this prestigious football quadrennial in Qatar.

But the recent chief of the World Cup, Hassan Al-Thawadi revealed that 400 to 500 workers lost their lives during the projects that are related to the tournament. It was the figure that was very high than the one given to the officials in Qatar.

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FairSquare has studied the deaths of migrant workers for over a decade. In the same line of events, the company’s founding director Nicholas McGeehan talked about the death toll with the Athletic.

You can’t put that on a death certificate - Nick McGeehan of FairSquare

“They call deaths non-work related if they don’t know how they died," said McGeehan.

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“You can’t put that on a death certificate, it is not a cause of death, there are MRI autopsies, autopsies by biopsy, and verbal autopsies, in addition to basic autopsies,” he added later.

Apart from the statement of McGeehan, a report of the Athletic also gave an eye to this with a question on ‘the cause of death on the death certificate of the workers.

“The 37 non-work-related deaths’ during stadium construction occurred (authorities said) as a result of workers collapsing or were the cause of death was not immediately apparent. On a death certificate, these are usually listed as ‘natural causes,” reads the report.