Qatar World Cup deadly for migrant workers, says trade union group

Qatar's construction frenzy ahead of the 2022 World Cup is on course to cost the lives of at least 4,000 migrant workers, the International Trade Union Congress has claimed.

The group has been scrutinising builders' deaths in the gulf emirate and said at least half a million more workers from countries including Nepal, India and Sri Lanka were expected to flood in to complete stadiums, hotels and infrastructure in time for the World Cup kick-off.

The annual death toll among those working on building sites could rise to 600 a year - almost a dozen a week - unless the Doha government made urgent reforms, it said.

The congress has based the estimate on present mortality figures for Nepalese and Indian workers, who form the bulk of Qatar's 1.2 million-strong migrant work force. Most of them are builders.

While it admits that the cause of death is not clear for many of the deceased - with autopsies often not being conducted and routine attribution to heart failure - it believes harsh and dangerous conditions at work and cramped and squalid living quarters are to blame.

The stark warning came after a Guardian investigation revealed that 44 Nepalese workers died between June 4 and August 8 this year, about half from heart failure or workplace accidents.