World Cup 2022: Far from the glitz of Qatar a migrant worker’s family grieves
To provide a living for his family, Kashiram Belbase joined the thousands leaving Nepal to build Qatar’s infrastructure to host the World Cup.
“We needed to build a house, send children to school, and manage the family,” recalled his wife, Dhankala.
“We had no money to manage everything. That’s why he went.”
And where he died.
In a Nepalese village, a son and daughter are now without their father.
Part of the vast low-paid migrant workforce from the Indian subcontinent in Doha, the 32-year-old was helping to build the metro transport system when he was found dead.
A premature death put down to underlying causes by Qataris. Respiratory failure his wife fears was caused by working in gruelling conditions in the desert nation.
“When I heard about the heart attack,” she told Sky News, “I felt it might be possible as it is extremely hot there.”
The anguish is deepened by the unanswered questions about her husband’s death and the lack of significant compensation from Qatar – effectively just the pay he was owed.
The 32-year-old had been helping to build Doha’s metro transport system
“Had we still been together, for example, it would not have been difficult for me to fulfil our children’s needs,” Dhankala weeps in the family home, where her husband’s picture hangs on the green walls.
“I feel they should have looked after us since Qatar is a rich country. No one from there provided us any kind of support.
“They only bore the cost of transportation of the body to Kathmandu from there.”
The sense of frustration – at times anger – is why in the weeks before the World Cup starts, European football federations, including the English and Welsh, are lobbying for a Qatari compensation fund.
As a family grieves far from the glitz of Qatar, the hope is the world’s biggest stars use their status to make an impact beyond the pitch.
“As they come to play there, they should appeal for providing support to the family of those who lost their lives while building the infrastructure,” 33-year-old Dhankala says.
“I wish they could support us and make an appeal. They could take care for the family.”
In fierce heat, the final touches are being made to ensure Qatar is World Cup ready
Government officials were not made available to speak to Sky News during a week-long visit in Qatar, where the UN’s labour agency assesses progress in improving rights and conditions for workers.
“We do need to have stronger investigations, whether they’re health investigations or labour investigations, to determine whether work could have played a factor in the worker’s death,” Max Tunon, head of the International Labour Organisation’s Doha office, told Sky News.
Mr Tunon recognises Qatar has made progress raising standards as the country has expanded since winning the FIFA World Cup vote in 2010.
The tournament is leaving a legacy with the introduction of a minimum wage and efforts to dismantle the Kafala system that ties workers to their employers.
“There’s greater labour mobility, greater freedoms, greater empowerment for workers,” he said.
“But we also know that there are huge issues that still exist, the full implementation of the Kafala reforms, it’s still a challenge for us, wage protection abuses are still too common and the rights of domestic workers you know, there’s new legislation protecting them in terms of working time, that right to the day off, but often we see a degree of non-compliance in these areas.”
With the tournament to start shortly, the window is closing for football to push for change
With the tournament opening on 20 November, the window is shortening for football to push for changes and ensure their presence in Qatar does not contribute to more suffering by workers.
“We’ve been trying to facilitate the role that football associations can play in doing their due diligence, but also engaging with worker management committees in their hotels, and also with the other contractors that they engage with during the World Cup,” Mr Tunon said.
“They need to talk to workers, talk to the worker representatives in the hotels to find out, what are the actual challenges or the issues that they face. Perhaps there are challenges, perhaps their success stories.”
Qatar has made progress raising standards, but ‘huge issues’ remain
Progress that is often undermined by the lack of clarity of why so many workers like Mr Belbase have died so young to ensure this tiny nation can cope with the influx of hundreds of thousands of fans for 64 matches in 29 days.
In the fierce heat, the final arduous touches are being made to ensure Qatar is World Cup ready.
The hope will be Qatar’s advances in labour rights continue after FIFA has left and there is no more unnecessary suffering.
World
Financial markets were always going to respond to Trump tariffs but they’re also battling with another problem
South Korea’s constitutional court has confirmed the dismissal of President Yoon Suk Yeol, who was impeached in December after declaring martial law.
His decision to send troops onto the streets led to the country’s worst political crisis in decades.
The court ruled to uphold the impeachment saying the conservative leader “violated his duty as commander-in-chief by mobilising troops” when he declared martial law.
The president was also said to have taken actions “beyond the powers provided in the constitution”.
Demonstrators stayed overnight near the constitutional court. Pic: AP
Supporters and opponents of the president gathered in their thousands in central Seoul as they awaited the ruling.
The 64-year-old shocked MPs, the public and international allies in early December when he declared martial law, meaning all existing laws regarding civilians were suspended in place of military law.
Read more from Sky News:
Highs and lows of Five-Year Keir
MP tells Sky News she was targeted online by Tate brothers
The court was under heavy police security guard ahead of the announcement. Pic: AP
After suddenly declaring martial law, Mr Yoon sent hundreds of soldiers and police officers to the National Assembly.
He has argued that he sought to maintain order, but some senior military and police officers sent there have told hearings and investigators that Mr Yoon ordered them to drag out politicians to prevent an assembly vote on his decree.
His presidential powers were suspended when the opposition-dominated assembly voted to impeach him on 14 December, accusing him of rebellion.
The unanimous verdict to uphold parliament’s impeachment and remove Mr Yoon from office required the support of at least six of the court’s eight justices.
South Korea must hold a national election within two months to find a new leader.
Lee Jae-myung, leader of the main liberal opposition Democratic Party, is the early favourite to become the country’s next president, according to surveys.
Stock markets around the world fell on Thursday after Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs – with some economists now fearing a recession.
The US president announced tariffs for almost every country – including 10% rates on imports from the UK – on Wednesday evening, sending financial markets reeling.
While the UK’s FTSE 100 closed down 1.55% and the continent’s STOXX Europe 600 index was down 2.67% as of 5.30pm, it was American traders who were hit the most.
Trump tariffs latest: US stock markets tumble
All three of the US’s major markets opened to sharp losses on Thursday morning.
The S&P 500 is set for its worst day of trading since the COVID-19 pandemic. File pic: AP
By 8.30pm UK time (3.30pm EST), The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 3.7%, the S&P 500 opened with a drop of 4.4%, and the Nasdaq composite was down 5.6%.
Compared to their values when Donald Trump was inaugurated, the three markets were down around 5.6%, 8.7% and 14.4%, respectively, according to LSEG.
Worst one-day losses since COVID
As Wall Street trading ended at 9pm in the UK, two indexes had suffered their worst one-day losses since the COVID-19 pandemic.
The S&P 500 fell 4.85%, the Nasdaq dropped 6%, and the Dow Jones fell 4%.
It marks Nasdaq’s biggest daily percentage drop since March 2020 at the start of COVID, and the largest drop for the Dow Jones since June 2020.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
The latest numbers on tariffs
‘Trust in President Trump’
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told CNN earlier in the day that Mr Trump was “doubling down on his proven economic formula from his first term”.
“To anyone on Wall Street this morning, I would say trust in President Trump,” she told the broadcaster, adding: “This is indeed a national emergency… and it’s about time we have a president who actually does something about it.”
Later, the US president told reporters as he left the White House that “I think it’s going very well,” adding: “The markets are going to boom, the stock is going to boom, the country is going to boom.”
He later said on Air Force One that the UK is “happy” with its tariff – the lowest possible levy of 10% – and added he would be open to negotiations if other countries “offer something phenomenal”.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
How is the world reacting to Trump’s tariffs?
Economist warns of ‘spiral of doom’
The turbulence in the markets from Mr Trump’s tariffs “just left everybody in shock”, Garrett Melson, portfolio strategist at Natixis Investment Managers Solutions in Boston, told Reuters.
He added that the economy could go into recession as a result, saying that “a lot of the pain, will probably most acutely be felt in the US and that certainly would weigh on broader global growth as well”.
Meanwhile, chief investment officer at St James’s Place Justin Onuekwusi said that international retaliation is likely, even as “it’s clear countries will think about how to retaliate in a politically astute way”.
He warned: “Significant retaliation could lead to a tariff ‘spiral of doom’ that could be the growth shock that drags us into recession.”
Read more:
Do Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ tariff numbers add up?
Tariffs about something more than economics: power
It comes as the UK government published a long list of US products that could be subject to reciprocal tariffs – including golf clubs and golf balls.
Running to more than 400 pages, the list is part of a four-week-long consultation with British businesses and suggests whiskey, jeans, livestock, and chemical components.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said on Thursday that the US president had launched a “new era” for global trade and that the UK will respond with “cool and calm heads”.
It also comes as Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced a 25% tariff on all American-imported vehicles that are not compliant with the US-Mexico-Canada trade deal.
He added: “The 80-year period when the United States embraced the mantle of global economic leadership, when it forged alliances rooted in trust and mutual respect and championed the free and open exchange of goods and services, is over. This is a tragedy.”
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports12 months agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business3 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway