In recent years, there have been numerous reports of alarms, due to the working conditions and conditions of the migrant workers working on the construction of the arenas for the 2022 World Cup. Among other things, hundreds of thousands of workers are forced to work outdoors for up to ten hours - in temperatures that can rise up to 45 degrees.
Such high temperatures put a tremendous strain on the cardiovascular system, and doctors have said on several occasions that there is a direct link between heat stress and the large number of young workers who die in Qatar during the summer months.
The deaths are described as "natural"
Now comes another report, with little flattering information for Qatar. The British newspaper The Guardian writes that there have been hundreds of deaths of migrant workers on several occasions, which have not been investigated since.
Most deaths have been classified by the Qatari authorities as "natural," or caused by heart attacks, and in most cases, no autopsies are performed on migrant workers' bodies, reports the Guardian.
Recommendations are not followed
According to Qatari law, investigations on the body after death may not be carried out unless a crime is suspected or if the deceased suffered from a disease before they died.
But in 2014, the international law firm DLA Piper, who works for the Qatari regime, among others, wrote a report that "on the strongest" recommended that an investigation into the deaths due to cardiac arrest be made. But that recommendation does not follow the country.
"Acute respiratory problems"
The Guardian has been in contact with family members of several workers who have died as a result of working on the construction of World Cup arenas. One of them is Nirmala Parkin, whose husband died in June this year. She got a call from her husband's boss, who told her the husband had died.
- He said: "We did our best, but he did not survive. We took him to the hospital for autopsy, says Parkinj.
The death certificate of Pakrin's husband claimed that he died of an "acute respiratory failure that came from natural causes". Pakrin, however, is very inquiring about how they arrived, as she is sure that no autopsy was done.
- There were some blood stains around his mouth and nose, but the rest of his body was untouched.
"Hard to Investigate"
An official of Qatar's government tells The Guardian that the families of the deceased must approve an autopsy before it is carried out.
- In most cases involving guest workers, families say no to autopsies because they want the bodies home as quickly as possible to carry out religious burials or cremations. This makes it difficult to investigate the deaths in some cases, says the official.
But Nirmala Pakrin, just like the other family members of the deceased guest workers with whom The Guardian has been in contact, denies that they would have been given the issue of autobuding.
And Kausik Ray, who is a professor of public health at Imperial College London, does not give much to the Qatari information that the deaths of migrant workers should have happened for natural reasons.
"People between the ages of 20 and 50 don't die in their sleep just like that ... You can't say they die of heart failure or respiratory failure without doing body examinations after death, unless you have information about their medical history," he says .
"Based on hearing search"
Ganesh Gurung, who works for the think tank Policy Research Academy in Nepal, says the death certificates in Qatar are not very worthwhile.
- Doctors tend to issue certificates based on hearing aids. In most cases, they do not even care to examine the bodies, especially so they do not examine the bodies after death. Doing so is very unusual, as it costs time and money. Why would they meet that dead person?