‘Part of life’: the official response to a migrant death at the World Cup
The chief executive for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, Nasser Al-Khater, has faced criticism for his response to the death of a migrant worker at one of the country bases around Doha.
The reported death of a Filipino national working as a migrant worker in Qatar has added to the growing list of migrants who have died producing the World Cup showpiece.
The worker is said to have fallen to his death whilst carrying out repairs to the training facility which until recently was housing the Saudi Arabia football team.
In response Fifa said it had been made aware of the accident but did not give any details, they said they were deeply saddened by the events that unfolded.
Al-Khater said: “We’re in the middle of a World Cup and we have a successful World Cup and this is something you want to talk about?
“Death is a natural part of life, whether it is at work or whether it’s in your sleep.
“Of course a worker died, our condolences go to his family however it’s strange that this is something you want to focus on as your first question.”
This comes just a week after a fellow Qatari World Cup bigwig confirmed that 400-500 migrant workers had died whilst building the infrastructure that’s hosted the quadrennial event despite the authorities originally saying it was less than 10.