2022 World Cup hosts Qatar asked to protect workers from heat

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Bengaluru, September 27: 2022 World Cup organisers Qatar have been asked to take measures to protect workers from excessive heat in the run up to the tournament.

Many migrant construction labourers are working on stadiums and other related projects in suffocating heat and New York-based organisation Human Rights Watch (HRW) wants the country to enact laws to protect the life of these people.

The HRW, which was quite critical of Qatar in its latest report says medical research suggests heat stress is a genuine risk to those working outside, and it has called for greater flexibility by organisers.

It has even asked FIFA, national associations and World Cup sponsors to demand further protection from heat and humidity for the workers.

"The Qatari authorities' failure to put in place the most basic protection from the heat, their decision to ignore recommendations that they investigate worker deaths, and their refusal to release data on these deaths, constitutes a wilful abdication of responsibility," said report author Nicholas McGeehan.

The HRW has also called on Qatar to investigate workers' deaths and make those findings public.

"They should also be demanding answers to two simple questions -- how many workers have died since 2012 and how they have died?" McGeehan added.