Qatar: Football World Cup 2022

Lord Londesborough Excerpts

Tuesday 30th November 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Sharpe of Epsom (Con)]

I think that question was answered earlier, but I take the noble Lord’s point. On media freedom, we continue to engage, as I also said earlier, regarding the number of fatalities. There is some disagreement and difficulty with data collection and precise numbers, but on all those matters, we continue to engage.

[Lord Londesborough (CB)]

My Lords, while it was encouraging to see Qatar introduce labour reforms last year, described at the time as ground-breaking by FIFA—perhaps not the most objective of observers—these reforms appear to have had limited impact, as Amnesty and other groups have highlighted. Human rights groups estimate that more than 6,000 migrant workers have died in the course of building the World Cup infrastructure, whereas the tournament’s chief executive claimed only last week that the real number was just three. What are our Government doing to encourage greater transparency?

[Lord Sharpe of Epsom (Con)]

As I have said already, I am afraid that the ILO report notes that it is currently not possible to safely present a categorical figure on the number of occupational injuries and fatalities, but the Government continue to engage regularly with the International Labour Organization office in Doha and explore areas of its work where the UK can add value. We stand ready to assist further and support Qatari continued efforts to implement change.