Qatar deny World Cup 'slavery' reports

The chairman of Qatar's National Human Rights Committee (NHRC) has denied claims by The Guardian newspaper that the 2022 World Cup organisers were treating Nepalese construction workers like "slaves".

Ali Al-Marri said the allegations, made last week, were totally erroneous. "There is no slavery or forced labour in Qatar," he said. "The information that The Guardian reported is false and the numbers cited by them are exaggerated."

The Guardian report last Thursday said dozens of Nepalese workers had died while working in Qatar in recent weeks, raising concerns about the Gulf state's preparations to host the World Cup. Quoting documents obtained by the Nepalese embassy in the Qatari capital Doha, The Guardian said thousands of Nepalese - at 370,000 the second largest group of labourers in Qatar after Indians - faced exploitation and abuses amounting to "modern-day slavery".

Marri admitted there had been some problems but added he and the government were doing their utmost to put these right. "There have been some problems, owing to the fact that there are 44,000 businesses in the country," he said. "But I can assure you that the authorities are constantly making efforts to resolve the problems."

Aidan McQuade, director of Anti-Slavery International who has seen the documents presented by the newspaper, said last Thursday the evidence was "certainly highly indicative of a brutal working environment which is not good for anybody".

However, Narinra Bad, the co-ordinator of the Nepalese community in the Middle East, also disputed the figures The Guardian gave.