remediation program. As well as providing compensation for all labor abuses related to hosting the tournament in Qatar, they should ensure that abuses are not repeated, both in Qatar and in future tournaments. To remedy the litany of abuses committed since 2010, when FIFA awarded hosting rights to Qatar without requiring any improvement in labor protections, the organizations called on FIFA to at least match the $440m it hands out in prize money at the World Cup. “Given the history of human rights abuses in the country, FIFA knew⁠—or should have known⁠—the obvious risks to workers when it awarded the tournament to Qatar. Despite this, there was not a single mention of workers or human rights in its evaluation of the Qatari bid and no conditions were put in place on labor protections. FIFA has since done far too little to prevent or mitigate those risks,” a statement issued by Amnesty International quotes Amnesty International’s Secretary General Agnès Callamard as saying. “By turning a blind eye to foreseeable human rights abuses and failing to stop them, FIFA indisputably contributed to the widespread abuse of migrant workers involved in World Cup-related projects in Qatar, far beyond the stadiums and official hotels,” he said. The sum of $440 million is likely to be the minimum necessary to cover an array of compensation costs and to support initiatives to protect workers’ rights in the future, Amnesty International has estimated. However, the total sum for reimbursing unpaid wages, the extortionate recruitment fees paid by hundreds of thousands of workers, and compensation for injuries and deaths could end up being higher, and should be evaluated as part of a participatory process with unions, civil society organizations, the International Labor Organization and others.

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