FIFA Enables The Abuse Migrant of Workers
Sportswashing, Saudi Arabia, and The 2034 World Cup
The migrant workforce in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia makes up 75% of the total workforce. These migrant workers are going to be the ones to build everything that is needed for the World Cup’s arrival in Saudi Arabia in 2034. Workers from Pakistan, India, Yemen, Sudan, Indonesia, and many others.
These workers are nothing more than indentured servants. Upon arrival, their passports are taken, and they can only leave the country if their Kafala (Their sponsor, AKA Their prison warden) agrees. This system criminalizes leaving an employer without permission. We witnessed this in Qatar during the 2022 World Cup.
They are paid next to nothing. Our housekeeper, when I was growing up, made $189 a month. From that money, she is expected to pay for all her necessities except for room and board, which can be a mat on the floor in the kitchen and a crust of bread.
There are no regulations to prevent mistreatment, abuse, rape, and the withholding of salaries by employers. The regulations they do announce are for show, period. They have no rights on the ground in Saudi Arabia, just like the entire Saudi Female population. They are forced to work more than 15 hours a day, seven days a week, with very few or no breaks.
Workers who work outside such as construction workers work in the extreme heat and while they claim to have regulations in place for working outside during certain times of the day, with no oversight the lives and health of the workers of no importantance to Mohammed bin Salman and his possible 1% GDP increase.
When you see a video of a worker during or leading up to the world cup saying how happy and well treated they are remember the words of Bret Baier the Foxs News Journalist who interviewed Mohammed bin Salman “And you didnt even plant them”.
If you travel to Saudi Arabia for the World Cup, please take a moment to think of the poor souls who built that stadium you are sitting in and what it might have cost them.
Migrant workers can be reported by their employers without evidence and tried using hearsay for crimes they didn’t commit. When they sentence them, all the pictures of the so-called migrant workers who were ‘smuggling drugs’, for example, look like this -
But hey! If the world also wants to see that their citizens are also being held ‘Accountable,’ let’s give the world some arrested nationals. Oops! Still no faces -
Who is in the pictures?... No names were released, no trial records, no evidence, just men facing a wall who will never see their home countries or families again. After all, MBS needs to show that he is improving security in the kingdom, making it safe for events like the World Cup.
There is no need to catch
real criminals
like his former henchman, Saud al-Qahtani when he can round up a few poor migrant workers and display them for crime-washing purposes.
Why are their faces hidden? It’s not for privacy reasons in a country with no privacy laws to protect anyone. It’s so no one can identify them, and therefore, no one can contradict the verdict. The equivalent of a modern-day witch trial: “Here is a witch,” “Here is a drug dealer,” “Here is a terrorist,” the end.
Oh ya, while we're on the subject, you can be beheaded if you are
accused
of being a witch today in Saudi Arabia. Fawza Falih Muhammad Ali was condemned to death for practicing witchcraft & an Egyptian pharmacist working there was
accused,
convicted, and executed. Make sure you leave your tarot cards behind if you decide to visit.
No joke.
Without these workers, the gulf countries economies would grind to a halt. If they knew their power they and had the conviction to stand and say no more real change would happen but when FIFA continues enabling countries like Saudi Arabia by offering them the world cup regardless of these human rights violations they send a clear message that their lives do not matter.
By Elise Evans Martin
Women’s Rights Activist & Dissident of Saudi Arabia. Speaker | Author | Called The Katniss Everdeen of Saudi Arabia.
More reading:
HRW - Migrant Workers and the Qatar World Cup
