The number of worker deaths for the World Cup has been estimated for the first time by a top Qatari official involved in the country’s World Cup organisation to be “between 400 and 500,” a far higher estimate than any other previously provided by Doha, reported the Economic Times.
During an interview with British journalist Piers Morgan, Hassan al-Thawadi, the secretary-general of Qatar’s Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy said, “The estimate is around 400, between 400 and 500. I don’t have the exact number. That’s something that’s been discussed.”
“One death is a death too many. Plain and simple,” al-Thawadi adds in the interview.
According to Al-Thawadi, the estimated death toll was among workers who were involved in work on stadium and other infrastructure for the tournament.
ET has reported that the number of worker fatalities related to the construction and renovation of the stadiums currently holding the World Cup is the only information provided in reports from the Supreme Committee dating from 2014 through the end of 2021.
These newly disclosed statistics put the overall death toll at 40. They include three workplace incidents and 37 from what the Qataris refer to as nonwork incidents, such as heart attacks. One report also separately lists a worker death from the coronavirus amid the pandemic.
Al-Thawadi’s statement is expected to reignite criticism by human rights organizations of the toll of hosting the first World Cup in the Middle East on the migrant workers who constructed the stadiums, metro systems, and other new infrastructure necessary for the event, costing over $200 billion.
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