To be built on the backs of dead immigrant workers

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Almost 1,000 fatalities so far......

Qatar government admits almost 1,000 fatalities among migrants

Report calls for changes to kafala system that ties workers to their employers, among other reforms

Numbers of foreign workers in Qatar have been boosted by construction ahead of the 2022 football world cup. Photograph: Str/EPA

The major report commissioned by Qatar into its treatment of migrant workers produced more than 60 suggested reforms – and one telling confirmation: that hundreds of migrants have died, many of them from unexplained sudden illness, over the past two years, at a rate of more than one a day.


The report by the international law firm DLA Piper calls for changes to the much-criticised kafala system that ties workers to their employers. It also contains the Qatari government's own figure on the numbers of migrants who have died on its soil: 964 from Nepal, India and Bangladesh in 2012 and 2013. In all, 246 died from "sudden cardiac death" in 2012, the report said, 35 died in falls and 28 committed suicide. The number of deaths resulting from work-related injuries was low.
But the real purpose of the 135-page report, commissioned in the wake of Guardian revelations about appalling working conditions in Qatar, was to make recommendations for reform. The document was welcomed by human rights campaigners as a major step forward, particularly given early fears that DLA Piper's independence could be compromised by its work for Qatar-owned news network al-Jazeera.

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