Thousands of migrant workers have died since Qatar was awarded to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

When Jagan Gurung's son Anish Gurung turned 18 he went abroad. – I told him to get married and build a life here at home, but he refused, says father Jagan Gurung. The family paid a recruiter and he started as a construction worker in Qatar. – He was sitting in the front seat next to the driver when they collided. The father says that it feels as if the son will call him on the mobile phone at any time and that he therefore keeps it charged and within reach. – I'm just waiting for him to call and say… Aama, Babaa. Although he died on the way to the workplace, the company has not paid any compensation yet.

The Bangladeshi migrant worker Mohammad Kaochar Khan was fond dead in his bed on November 15, 2017 at the age of 34. In his death certificate as well as the certificate from the Bangladesh embassy in Qatar it says that his cause of death was “acute respiratory failure due to natural cause”. “His plan for migrating to Qatar was to collect a good amount of money so that he could educate his son and build a mansion”, says his younger brother Didarul Islam Khan who works for the government.

Mijanuar Rahman had been working in Qatar as private driver for eight years and recently changed employer. The widow Mosa Arifa Laizu says that her husband was in good health while he was in Bangladesh and that there where no record of heart disease while he lived in his home country. – It it hard for us to believe that MIjan died of heart attack in Qatar, she said.

Sujan often told his family about the severe heat in Qatar. He also complained that he did not manage to get any good jobs.  “Sometimes he worked in a construction site in Doha and would get $219 monthly.  Sometime he would remain out of work”. Sujan did not have the time or the money to visit his home after going to Qatar. During his three year long period abroad, he did not come back home a single time. The family had plans for marrying him off soon after he returned home from Qatar. But he died abroad.

On November 18, 2019, Latha Bollapally received a call from Qatar. Her husband had had a heart attack the night before in his room. Ten days after his death, the body arrived at the village. He worked abroad for 12 years. - He never said anything about his salary or about the working conditions or how he lived. When he died, we received one thousand Indian rupees as compensation, says Brother Rajesh. The family knows very little about his life in Qatar. - He lived alone, cooked all his food by himself and when some relatives wanted to make contact with him, he distanced himself from them.

The Bangladeshi migrant worker Abul Hashem died in Qatar due to “acute cardio respiratory failure” at a construction site neary Doha.  On the day of his death, he was working at a construction site in Al Rayyan in Doha and according to the family he was setting tiles. The other coworkers immediately called an ambulance which took Hashem to the hospital where he was declared dead. Abul Kalam Azad, the son of deceased migrant says that his father had no previous history of heart problems.