LOUIS BURKE | Culture | CONTACT
The FIFA World Cup is about to kick off in Qatar leaving many Aussies disgusted at the idea of supporting the event.
Migrant workers from countries such as Bangladesh, Nepal and India have been abused and exploited during the construction of the stadium, with estimates nearly 8,000 have died.
Many of these skilled workers went into debt of up to $4,300 USD to secure the job only to be subjected to appalling living conditions, abuse, not being able to leave and salaries that took months to arrive, coming in at about 60% of what was promised.
These living conditions have been widely criticised, including by Australia’s own Socceroos who released a video condemning Qatar before flying to Qatar to participate in the World Cup.
The Socceroos are not the only Aussies criticising Qatar for the use of forced labour, many Australians have condemned this modern day slave labour, especially when Melanesian indentured labour gets the job done to ensure we can have cheap fruit and vege in the supermarket.
No one is really surely how the fruit for visas schemes became a thing, but it certainly sounds a lot nicer than indentured labour, something Qatar might have wanted to consider.
“Qatar ought to be ashamed of themselves,” stated Kian Mackay, a descendent of John Mackay.
“Indentured labour might have built the pyramids, cut the sugarcane, made the USA wealthy, built my phone, stitched my shirt and let’s be honest, picked my fruit, but it’s not on.”
“Those types of working conditions are not acceptable in this day and age.”
“Or any day and age! Add that bit. Make sure you publish what I just said.”
