Analysis of the HSE’s annual reports shows the annual number of deaths in its area of responsibility as follows: 2014/15 (26 deaths); 2015/16 (13 deaths); 2016/17 (16 deaths); 2017/18 (11 deaths); 2018/19 (12 deaths); 2019/20 (11 deaths); 2020/21 (11 deaths); and 2021/22 (18 deaths).
In addition to deaths from work-related accidents, 395 people die each year from work-related diseases. An average of 3,950 deaths over a ten-year period.
As well as the horrific human toll, this has cost the north’s economy more than £238m a year – more than £2bn over a decade, according to the HSE.
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The British newspaper The Guardian reported that 37 of the workers directly involved in the construction of the World Cup stadiums had died. The newspaper further reported that 6,500 migrant workers died in Qatar between 2011 and 2021.
However, Qatar’s Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy (SC) said there were only three work-related deaths and 37 non-work-related deaths during World Cup stadium construction.
However, it has acknowledged hundreds of work-related deaths across the economy.
“The separate citation on figures refers to national statistics covering all work-related deaths across Qatar (414) between 2014 and 2020, across all sectors and nationalities,” it said in a statement this week.
Niall McCarroll, chairman of the Delhi Trade Unions Council, expressed solidarity with migrant workers toiling on infrastructure projects in Qatar.
“Unionists and other social justice activists will rightfully focus on the 6,500 migrant workers who have died in Qatar since the 2010 World Cup was awarded to the Gulf nation.
“6,500 workers have been denied the right to join and form trade unions. International solidarity has always been an important part of the trade union movement and will continue as we stand with all migrant workers in Qatar,” he said.
But local unionists say work is needed to protect workers’ rights at home and their health and safety.
He claimed construction was an “employment sector in which workers are largely ununionized and bosses refuse to recognize unions”, noting that “more people have been killed in the world than have been killed directly in the world” over the past eight years at Qatar’s Cup venues.
“We question Qatar’s human rights abuses, lack of equality and freedom of expression, inhumane treatment of migrant workers, including their depressing living conditions and brutal take-home pay of just £1 an hour.
“It is also true that we call out inequality, deprivation and poverty at home, and demand better services for local workers, many of whom return to their cold homes after being paid as little as £4.81 an hour – the government’s approach to wages Inequalities and hardship created by policies and local employers who choose not to respect or value their workers,” Mr McCarroll said.
