I am excited that in less than a week the world shares a time zone as the World Cup commences in Brazil and I get to put on my USA and Mexico jerseys and share some brews and games with friends and family but It saddens me to discover the human rights atrocities that are being committed in Qatar in preparations for the 2022 world cup. Qatar is a small nation of 250,000 people with the highest per capita income in the world and in order to construct the 10 state-of-the-art stadiums and accommodations needed to host this event they recruited in 1.5 million workers from the poorest regions of Southeast Asia to come work for low wages, unsafe work enviorments (130 degree weather!!!!), horrid living conditions, endure humiliation and discrimination, All of these abuses are possible because of the nation’s kafala employment system, which has been aptly described as modern day slavery. Through kafala, employers are allowed to confiscate a migrant’s passport and withhold exit visas, effectively preventing that person from leaving the country. Sharan Burrow, the general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation, is quoted in the ESPN documentary as saying that at current rates, 4,000 people will die to make the 2022 World Cup a reality. As a futbol fan and the son of immigrants this story struck a deep chord with me and was a eye opening insight of the struggles of people in other parts of the world. FULL DOC: espn.go/video/clip?id=11019010
Posted on: Fri, 06 Jun 2014 20:53:05 +0000
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