HRW: The Swedish national team does not want to play football where people have died

The FIFA World Cup in Qatar, which has made headlines for a decade, is fast approaching and criticism persists to the last.

Discussions are still ongoing about whether countries should boycott the competition, partly due to the treatment of guest workers who built the infrastructure.

According to the British The Guardian, more than 6,500 guest workers have died in Qatar since it became clear in 2010 that the country would host the 2022 World Cup. Of these deaths, a couple dozen have been directly linked to the construction of football stadiums.

- I do not think that the Swedish men's national football team wants to play a World Cup that workers died to build up, says Minky Worden at the human rights organization Human Rights Watch to the Foreign Office.

Sportswashing more common

HRW says that sportswashing, washing its image with the help of sports, is becoming more common among countries where human rights violations are common.

As an example in the near future, Minky Worden mentions that China will host the 2022 Winter Olympics.

- There is no freedom of the press to speak of, Uighurs are exposed to human rights violations and the International Olympic Committee will wear uniforms from a cotton manufacturer where we know that forced labor occurs.

"Sweden has a responsibility"

Countries, fans and athletes should therefore put pressure on organizations such as Fifa to ensure that human rights are respected in the countries that organize sporting events, says Minky Worden.

- Sweden has a responsibility to prevent countries such as Saudi Arabia and China from holding the world's largest event.

Click on the clip above to hear Minky Worden about Sweden's and Swedish athletes' responsibility to prevent sportswashing and see more in the Foreign Office: Blood sports on SVT Play tonight from 7.30 pm and on SVT2 at 9.45 pm.