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

Throughout the past year, Rada Chinna Ramoji often told his wife Rada Sujatha that they were missing people because of Covid-19. - In January, there was a shortage of manpower and he started working 12-hour shifts, sometimes as much as 16-hours. He was always awake, says Mrs. Rada Sujatha. He often talked to his wife about how hard his job as a cleaner was. He talked about the lack of sleep, and how bad it hurts to have to get up for so long - but he was healthy. Sometime between January 24 and 25, Ramoji died. - I was told that he died of a heart attack in his sleep in the morning, says the widow Rada Sujatha.

Eleven years ago, the family decided that the father would travel to Qatar to work. - We did not have money to be able to send children to school or to buy food or to pay the rent, says the widow Bishnu Kumari Makhim. The job as a driver was intense. He drove workers to and from their homes and construction sites. One afternoon, the brakes of the bus suddenly stopped working and the collision was inevitable. - When I called him on the morning of the accident day, he said he was not feeling well. When I called a few hours later, he did not answer, the widow says.

In May 2020, the family brought the body of 50-year-old Keramat Ali to Laksam in the Cumilla district of southeastern Bangladesh. He died due to a stroke in Qatar in April of that year. His wife and two children, a son and a daughter, are now struggling to make ends meet. - I am struggling with the interest rates of the loans and I will soon have to take my eleven-year-old out of school and send him to work, says widow Tahmina Akhter. She says that her parents have been able to help a lot, but that it is unsustainable in the long run.

On May 15, 2020, migrant Shohag Madbar died at his room at the age of 30. The death certificate from the Qatari government mentiones the cause of death as a “heart attack”. Due to the uncertain job situation and the irregular wage, Shohag lived with a constant tension. The family believes the pressure caused a “mental shock”. When asked, Shohag’s uncle Md Kamal Uddin said that the family had been struggling since his death. – Shohag’s father who is a farmer his mother and their two daughters lost all dreams when they sent their only young breadearner to Qatar.

In February 2020, Farzana Akhter lost her husband and gave birth to their first daughter. Instead of celebrating a new life, she had to go to the airport and claim Zobair Ahmed’s dead body along with $410 and a death certificate. He was 32 and had worked as a driver in Qatar for nine years. The official cause of death said “strangulation”. It was unclear if he had committed suicide or accidentally ended up hanging in his helmet strap. “I refuse to believe that he would have taken his own life,” the widow says. “I see no reason why.”

Monir Hossain died on April 16, 2020 in Qatar due to an electric shock. He had worked for three years for a company as a painter. The 28-year-old widow Fatima Begum says that she has now moved in with her dead husband's parents. - I am worried how I can afford to pay for my children's education, she says. The entire family in the Cumilla district of southeastern Bangladesh is now having a difficult time. - The official explanation is that it was an “accident” but they do not have any further details. The family now gets help from the neighbors to cope with the daily expenses.