by Suzanne Beishon

BRITAIN’S construction workers’ union welcomed the take-up of a complaint against Fifa about Qatar’s human rights violations linked to the building of World Cup 2022 infrastructure yesterday.

The Swiss National Contact Point (NCP), which is responsible for encouraging compliance with OECD guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, has accepted the written concerns of the Building and Wood Workers’ International (BWI) and will now move to co-ordinate discussions on how football’s ruling body can clamp down on the horrific violations.

And acting general secretary Brian Rye of construction workers’ union Ucatt applauded the developments: “Ucatt welcomes this development and has played a key role in the BWI campaign to force Fifa to take responsibility and bring about the end of human rights violations linked to the building of infrastructure for the World Cup in 2022.

“We stand shoulder to shoulder with those workers that have been exploited and killed and demand an end now to the kafala system that allows this to take place. Fifa must seek to force the Qatari authorities to stop the deaths now.

“The plight of migrant works in Qatar has received a lot of media attention but very little action on the ground. As the world knows Fifa have chosen to worry about the health of footballers and not the health of the workers building what will be a bloodstained World Cup.”

The BWI submitted their complaint in May and attacked Fifa for breaching OECD guidelines by awarding the 2022 competition to the Gulf state and for failing to carry out ongoing due diligence. They also hit out at the controversial kafala sponsorship system which has led to migrant workers having to pay recruitment fees, having their passports confiscated, non-payment of wages, health and safety breaches and more.

The Swiss NCP, in accepting the case after its formal initial assessment, also shot down complaints from Fifa that the OECD guidelines did not apply the organisation stating that “Fifa’s involvement in the organisation of the Fifa 2022 World Cup and in particular the contractual relationship with its direct counterparties can be considered as activities of commercial nature, to which the OECD guidelines are applicable.”