“At FIFA you can’t just say: if the government does not cooperate, we will avoid our responsibility,” said Wenzel Michalski, Germany director of the human rights organization, the editorial network Germany (RND, Wednesday editions).
“It’s not just about the deaths in building the stadium, but in general building the infrastructure for the World Cup,” Michalski said. “It’s not just a moral obligation, it’s a legal obligation. The employer has to pay for the families of employees who have died or are now incapacitated for work.”
Together with Amnesty International, the human rights organization is demanding a payment of 440 million euros (about 437 million Swiss francs). Qatar and FIFA should pay for the guest workers who were exploited or killed on World Cup construction sites. The amount corresponds to the prize money for the 32 national teams participating in the World Cup.
As the host of the World Cup, Qatar has been criticized for the human rights situation in the Gulf Emirate. The World Cup starts on November 20. It is the first time that the World Cup will be held in an Arab country – and the first time not in the summer but at the end of the year.
(SDA)