The director of the organizing committee for the Qatar 2022 Soccer World Cup, Nasser al Khater, assured this Tuesday that Qatar is a “tolerant country” that will welcome the LGTBI community, despite complaints from Human Rights organizations, which have focused on the rights of workers, women and gay people.
Just one year after the FIFA Cup, Al Khater has said that since Qatar was accused of buying votes for the World Cup election it has been treated “unfairly” – a situation that could be reversed if the spectators and Attendees of the competition verify that “people do not feel unsafe in the country,” he responded to CNN.
“We know that the World Cup has Qatar in the spotlight and we have already seen it in the past, but if it is something that can serve to bring about change, we are working on it,” he said to settle the controversy.
Amnesty International (AI) denounced in a statement in November abuses against migrant workers and demanded “urgent” measures to speed up the process of reform of the kafala system, labor legislation based on sponsorship. In fact, since the construction of large infrastructures for the World Cup began, about 6,500 migrants from countries such as India have died, with 2,711 deaths, Nepal (1,641) or Pakistan (824), among others.
This figure assumes that at least 12 migrants die each week, deaths that are not considered as occupational accidents and that are classified as natural deaths, with causes as diverse as heart and respiratory failure, suicides or car accidents.
Human rights organizations insist that Qatar still maintains “anti-gay laws”, as it condemns homosexuality with at least five years in prison.
