The men are at Al Bidda Park, a pristine green space next to the FIFA Fan Festival. Throughout the tournament, Al Bidda Park will be packed with football fans enjoying the grass, shaded picnic spots and views of Doha. The guards interviewed are not under contract with FIFA nor have they been deployed to the Festival. But long after the fans have retired to their hotels, the guards will remain. In fact, it seems fans are likely to see more of Doha in a week than these men will in years. The guards say they work 12-hour shifts and claim they usually only get one day off a month. “Just going between our duty and our accommodation,” said one, holding up his phone. “You can show me anywhere in Qatar and I won’t know where it is.” The claims come on the eve of the men’s FIFA World Cup, which is set to kick off on Sunday, amid widespread international criticism of the host nation’s record on migrant worker and LGBTQ+ rights. FIFA and the Qatari authorities have struggled in recent weeks to shift the spotlight away from workers’ and LGBTQ+ rights, with FIFA secretary-general Gianni Infantino saying World Cup teams should “focus on football” and to warn them not to “dispense moral lessons to the rest of the world”. The Guardian’s findings are based on interviews conducted over the past few months with park rangers working for Al Nasr Star Security Services. Guards and “marshals” employed by other companies also work in the park. There is no indication that they are subject to the same claims for terms. The Guardian’s analysis of workers’ pay notices, corroborated by workers’ accounts of their working hours and pay, suggests that guards are typically paid 1330 riyals (£310) a month for 348 hours of service, plus a small alimony. It is understood that this includes 104 hours of overtime, for which they are paid 150 riyals, which if correct is equivalent to less than 35p an hour. Such working hours and overtime appear to violate Qatari labor laws. Al Bidda Park, which opened in 2018, is adjacent to the FIFA fan festival and is likely to attract many football fans. Photo: Pete Pattison Security guards say they know they are underpaid but feel powerless to act. “It’s illegal, but the government is silent, so what can we do?” claims one. “We put up with it because we need the money,” said another, revealing the plight faced by many low-wage workers in Qatar. Others are grateful to have at least one job that pays more than they can do at home. “I’m happy because I’m getting something… It’s a struggle but I don’t care because I don’t have anything,” said one. An Amnesty International report in March this year found that exploitation in the private security sector was common in Qatar. “Security guards are integral to the smooth running of the World Cup… No one should be working under these conditions and anyone who has been abused should be compensated,” said Ella Knight, migrant labor rights researcher at Amnesty. . Knight suggested the Guardian’s findings were “another clear example of the shortcomings of the reform process and how remaining gaps in enforcement continue to affect the lives of migrant workers in the country”. Qatar’s labor reforms should mean Al Bidda park rangers can move to a better-paying job, but workers say the practice is too difficult and they believe they still need their employer’s permission to look for another job . “If they gave [permission] … 90% would have changed jobs,” said one. “Even when we sleep, we dream about changing jobs,” added a colleague. Separately, they all claim they were forced to pay illegal recruitment fees – of £1,175 to £1,650 – to recruitment agents in their home countries to secure their jobs, forcing them to work for up to five months just to pay back the fees. And while some football fans will enjoy the world’s most luxurious hotels, some of these men sleep in bunks in overcrowded labor camps on the edge of the desert. Subscribe to Global Dispatch Get a different view of the world with a collection of the best news, features and images, curated by our global development team Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. The Guardian visited a camp housing the guards and found rooms with four bunks crammed end to end around the edge of a tiny space. There were no lockers, so men shared their beds with their belongings or a suitcase. Cooking utensils were piled under the beds. Two large dirty kitchens and smelly toilet cubicles stood outside. One ranger said the toilets were so bad at his camp that he preferred to wait and use the ones in the park. It’s a world that few football fans will see. Turn off a four-lane highway from Doha and onto a potholed road and the only traffic is an endless stream of buses and minivans ferrying men to and from their workplaces. The road leads for dozens of building blocks between wastelands covered in garbage. Outside every block, men sit on rocks scrolling through their phones while stray dogs play in the dust. A homemade basketball hoop is the only sign of normal life. Today Building and Wood Workers’ International, a union that has worked with Qatari authorities to improve workers’ rights in the country, issued a strong statement saying: “There is no sign of sustainable change [for migrant workers] is forthcoming.” A Qatari government official said: “Over the past decade, extensive action has been taken to combat exploitative labor practices and to provide accessible channels for workers to file complaints… When violations are recorded, remedial action is taken and violators are punished.” The official said more than 420,000 workers have changed employers since a new law was introduced in 2020, which made it easier to change jobs. Last month, 3,712 labor inspections were carried out, he added, and 97% of workers are covered by the wage protection scheme, “which ensures that all wages are paid in full and on time”. “Systemic change does not happen overnight – it takes time to transform a labor market. In other countries, this has been a decades-long process, and in many countries – including Europe – this process is still ongoing. “Hundreds of thousands of workers have benefited from our labor reforms and our commitment to improving the lives of every expatriate who has made Qatar their second home will continue long after the World Cup,” the official said. The chief executive of Al Nasr Star Group confirmed that the guards work 12-hour shifts, but said they get a two-hour break every day and one day off a week. Security guards who spoke to the Guardian claim they do not usually take breaks during their working day, although one worker said he was given breaks from work during the summer months. The company did not respond to repeated requests for a written response to the allegations made to the Guardian by its workers, nor did it provide timetables or information about the pay of security guards working at Al Bidda.
