BRIG: A group of activists erected protest billboards in FIFA boss Gianni Infantino’s Swiss hometown of Brig on Wednesday demanding the world football body compensate migrant workers for alleged human rights abuses in FIFA World Cup host Qatar.
The mobile billboards carried the messages “Infantino: your family were migrants”, “Thousands like them were victims of this World Cup”, and “Compensate them now”.
Campaign group Avaaz’s protest also included an Infantino impersonator holding a World Cup trophy.
Qatar, where foreigners make up most of the population of 2.9 million, has come under heavy criticism from human rights groups over its treatment of migrant workers.
Great Britain Guardian The newspaper reported last year that at least 6,500 migrants – many working on World Cup projects – had died in Qatar since it won the right in 2010 to host the World Cup.
Hassan Al Thawadithe Secretary General of Qatar’s Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, said in a television interview with a British journalist Piers Morgan broadcast last month that the death toll of migrant workers in World Cup-related projects was “between 400 and 500”.
Amnesty and other rights groups have appealed to FIFA to compensate migrant workers in Qatar for human rights abuses by setting aside $440 million, the World Cup prize money.
FIFA said it was assessing Amnesty’s proposal and implementing an “unprecedented due diligence process regarding the protection of the workers concerned”.
FIFA said it was working with the organizing committee and had already compensated a number of workers. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.
The European Parliament last month approved a resolution calling on FIFA to help compensate the families of migrant workers who died, as well as workers whose rights were violated, during preparations for the World Cup.
The mobile billboards carried the messages “Infantino: your family were migrants”, “Thousands like them were victims of this World Cup”, and “Compensate them now”.
Campaign group Avaaz’s protest also included an Infantino impersonator holding a World Cup trophy.
Qatar, where foreigners make up most of the population of 2.9 million, has come under heavy criticism from human rights groups over its treatment of migrant workers.
Great Britain Guardian The newspaper reported last year that at least 6,500 migrants – many working on World Cup projects – had died in Qatar since it won the right in 2010 to host the World Cup.
Hassan Al Thawadithe Secretary General of Qatar’s Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, said in a television interview with a British journalist Piers Morgan broadcast last month that the death toll of migrant workers in World Cup-related projects was “between 400 and 500”.
Amnesty and other rights groups have appealed to FIFA to compensate migrant workers in Qatar for human rights abuses by setting aside $440 million, the World Cup prize money.
FIFA said it was assessing Amnesty’s proposal and implementing an “unprecedented due diligence process regarding the protection of the workers concerned”.
FIFA said it was working with the organizing committee and had already compensated a number of workers. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.
The European Parliament last month approved a resolution calling on FIFA to help compensate the families of migrant workers who died, as well as workers whose rights were violated, during preparations for the World Cup.
