The head of the Qatar World Cup Organizing Committee downplayed the death of an immigrant worker: “Death is part of life”

The executive director of the Qatar World Cup affirmed that “death is part of life”, in a cold response to the tragic death of another immigrant worker who died in a training facility.

Nasser Al Khater, Executive Director of the 2022 World Cup in Doha, confirmed the worker’s death, without giving further details. He offered his condolences to the family but refused to talk about it.

“Death is a natural part of life, whether at work or while you sleep,” Khater said, expressing disappointment at journalists’ questions about the report.

‘We are in the middle of a World Cup. And we have a successful World Cup. And now you want to talk about this?” , he added.

According to The Athletic, the deceased is a Filipino in his 40s who fell off a forklift while repairing the lighting in a car park. Several sources said he was not wearing a safety harness.

For its part, the Qatari government said on Thursday that they were investigating the death of a worker in an accident at the Saudi Arabian base camp during the World Cup, after the incident was reflected in the press.

“If the investigation finds that security protocols were not respected, the company is exposed to judicial investigations and harsh economic sanctions,” the government said in a statement.

“The Philippine embassy in Doha is also investigating this case,” the Philippine Ministry of Foreign Affairs told AFP, unable to provide further details at this time.

In another statement, FIFA declared itself “deeply saddened by this tragedy”. “We have contacted local authorities for more details,” the organization added in a statement.

In Doha, the supreme organizing committee of the World Cup said in a statement that it was not the employer of the worker in question and that the accident occurred “on property that is not under its jurisdiction”.

However, the committee said it was following the case “with the competent authorities” and was in “contact with the family” of the victim.

Qatar has a mechanism for compensation for work-related accidents and unpaid wages, which has transferred more than $350 million so far, according to authorities.

Since it was elected to organize the 2022 World Cup in December 2010, the small Gulf emirate has been criticized for the working and living conditions of its hundreds of thousands of migrant workers from Asia and Africa.

Doha responds that it has undertaken unprecedented reforms in the labour code, applauded by trade union organizations, which nevertheless call for more rigorous application.

The total number of deaths in work-related accidents during the preparations for the World Cup varies from source to source. Qatar says 414 people died between 2014 and 2020. NGOs have been targeting several thousand since 2010.

This article was originally published on infobae.com