Human rights concerns in the spotlight as World Cup set to begin in Qatar

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• Geoff Bennett:

  Every four years, FIFA, the global soccer organization holds the largest men's tournament, the World Cup. In 2010, FIFA announced that Qatar would host this year's games since then, Qatar has come under scrutiny for treatment of migrant workers. And as Ali Rogin reports with the tournament's kicked off just days away those concerns are once again in the spotlight.

• Ali Rogin:

  As Qatar prepares for more than 1 million World Cup visitors, football fans and activists worry about the host nations human rights record, and that some people might not be welcome at the tournament. In the Gulf, state women must request permission from male guardians to travel, work and marry. Freedom of speech and expression is restricted. Migrant workers are at the mercy of their employers to leave the country and same-sex relationships and activity are criminalized. Despite criticism from the international community, Qatar's World Cup ambassador and former footballer Khalid Salman defended the nation's position that LGBTQ activity is haram or forbidden.

• Khalid Salman, FIFA World Cup Ambassador:

  It's a haram way, because the damage in the mind.

• Ali Rogin:

  Even former FIFA President Sepp Blatter who announced Qatar's win in 2010, said that doing so was a mistake. That's in part because of Qatar's treatment of migrant workers. They make up 90% of the workforce, receive meager salaries and often live in dirty and unsafe conditions. Blatter says FIFA has since added human rights and "social considerations" to its criteria when picking host countries. For their part, FIFA and Qatar have said the games are open to all.

• Gianni Infantino, FIFA President:

  Everyone will be welcomed to the tournament, regardless of their origin, background, religion, gender, sexual orientation or nationality.

• Ali Rogin:

  I recently spoke to Michael Page with Human Rights Watch about his and other groups concerns.

  Michael, thank you so much for joining us. Your group recently put out a report noting that Qatari security forces arrested a number of LGBTQ plus people as recently as September. So, what does that say about your concerns for the treatment of LGBTQ plus people if they come to Qatar for the games?

• Michael Page, Human Rights Watch:

  It really puts into fundamental question, you know, all of these claims from FIFA and Qatari authorities of will fans be safe, who are LGBT people? I think it's a real concern, because there have been promises over and over again by both FIFA and Qatar that they have failed to meet.

  And I think it highlights a larger concern, which is why was Qatar awarded the games in the first place when these fundamental problems around human rights were well known. And there has been nothing, for instance, that has been done around removing these discriminatory laws that exist in Qatar in the first place, which include individuals who are found to have same-sex relations could face up to seven years in prison.

• Ali Rogin:

  And if Qatar is acting this way now, how optimistic are you that their behavior is going to change over the long-term when the eyes of the world have moved on?

• Michael Page:

  I think it's concerning that Qatari authorities and FIFA have refused so far to even back a concept of a compensation fund for the serious abuses that migrant workers have faced building the World Cup infrastructure. So, if these type of commitments can't be made ahead of the World Cup, you know, I think it's really concerning for human rights organizations of what's going to happen, you know, after the fact.

• Ali Rogin:

  So, let's talk about what more you would like to see Qatar do because the Guardian newspaper reported last year that 6500 migrant workers have died in the construction of the infrastructure for the games, since Qatar won the bidding. So, what more does this country need to do?

• Michael Page:

  So, in the past several years, Qatari authorities have made some important reforms around, for instance, the ability for migrant workers to change their jobs for them to leave the country. And they've also put in some mechanisms to compensate workers who have faced wage abuses. But in the past two years, Qatar Ministry of Labor has told Human Rights Watch that they've compensated something around $164 million in wage abuses to migrant workers who have faced these abuses. That's a positive thing.

  However, that's only in the past few years. What is the actual figure not only of wage abuses, but other serious abuses that have occurred to migrant workers when none of these reforms were in place since 2010?

• Ali Rogin:

  What about the responsibility of some of the teams that are going to be going to the World Cup, some from the U.K. and the United States have said that this is an important opportunity where they can shed a light on some of the abuses that they've become aware of, what do you make of that defense?

• Michael Page:

  I think there's a real role for footballers and football teams to play in terms of demanding that FIFA and Qatar respect human rights and that they redress these serious issues. At the end of the day, they did not choose for this World Cup to be held in Qatar, it was FIFA who decided that. It was FIFA who had the responsibilities to do its due diligence around hosting the tournament and human rights. And they absolutely failed in that, but they can't and we can as fans escape our connections to migrant workers who face serious abuses.

• Ali Rogin:

  The White House has said it's going to be sending a delegation to these games. Here's what White House Press Secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre had to say the other day.

• Karine Jean-Pierre, White House Press Secretary:

  This is an important event and we're going to be cheering on the team, Team USA. It is not an unusual thing for us to do when there is an event like this.

• Ali Rogin:

  What do you make of that?

• Michael Page:

  I think it is really not what is needed. It's not sufficient. The issue is that, we want the U.S. government that regularly, you know, says they support labor rights. They support worker's rights to take a better public position or any public position on human rights in Qatar, their ally, and that would include demanding that they support and compensate migrant workers who have faced all these serious abuses since they're going to be part of this official delegation for joining the FIFA World Cup.

• Ali Rogin:

  Michael Page with Human Rights Watch, thank you so much for your time.

• Michael Page:

  Thank you so much.