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

Read their stories.

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Since Qatar was awarded the 2022 FIFA World Cup, thousands of migrant workers have died. In search for answers, journalism platform Blankspot collected stories directly from their families. We then created Cards of Qatar – a catalogue of football cards that instead of facts about players tell the stories of the workers who never returned.

Read their stories and long form articles highlighting the reality of the situation for the migrant workers who built Qatar. Read more

THE CARDS


Migrant worker
Nepal
In memory of

Phurparani Tamang

1996—2021
Years
of
Age
25
World
Cup
Qatar
22
cardsofqatar.com
Migrant worker
Nepal
In memory of

Phurparani Tamang

1996—2021
After a mandatory medical examination, Phurparani Tamang was considered completely healthy and received her work visa. – Once in Qatar, she got a job as a cleaner, which she was happy with because she did not have to work outside in the sun, says her mother. One day she was taken to the hospital. – She told us there was no reason to worry. But a few days later I learned that she had died. I just cannot believe she's gone. Her body landed at Kathmandu airport just four days after she died and her mother traveled there to receive it. – Our daughter who went to support her family, left full of life, and came home dead.
— told to the journalistic platform Blankspot
FULL STORY
cardsofqatar.com
Migrant worker
Bangladesh
In memory of

Mijanur Rahman

1985—2019
Years
of
Age
34
World
Cup
Qatar
22
cardsofqatar.com
Migrant worker
Bangladesh
In memory of

Mijanur Rahman

1985—2019
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.
— told to the journalistic platform Blankspot
FULL STORY
cardsofqatar.com
Migrant worker
Nepal
In memory of

Subodha Mishra

1978—2013
Years
of
Age
35
World
Cup
Qatar
22
cardsofqatar.com
Migrant worker
Nepal
In memory of

Subodha Mishra

1978—2013
Subodha Mishra made his first trip to Qatar at the age of 18. From then until his death in 2013, he spent only a few months in his home village of Bhramarpura. - He first went there because the family needed to eat, then to be able to build a house, then to be able to pay for our education, says his nephew Arun Kumar Mishra. The details of the death are unclear. Grief is mixed with unanswered questions. - The company says that it was an accident, that a truck backed into him. But we are not sure, says Manda Devi Mishra.
— told to the journalistic platform Blankspot
FULL STORY
cardsofqatar.com
Migrant worker
Bangladesh
In memory of

Zohorul Islam

1997–2020
Years
of
Age
23
World
Cup
Qatar
22
cardsofqatar.com
Migrant worker
Bangladesh
In memory of

Zohorul Islam

1997–2020
Zohorul’s death in Qatar couldn’t have happened at a worse time. The family was even before his death passing through economic hardship.  They had borrowed money from a local NGO, moneylenders and relatives to send Zohorul to Qatar to work as a cleaner. Rina Akter, elder sister, and Sharmin Akter, younger sister, of Zohorul claimed that their only brother did not have any previous health complications or diseases in Bangladesh.
— told to the journalistic platform Blankspot
FULL STORY
cardsofqatar.com
Migrant worker
Bangladesh
In memory of

Bishal Rayhan

2000—2020
Years
of
Age
20
World
Cup
Qatar
22
cardsofqatar.com
Migrant worker
Bangladesh
In memory of

Bishal Rayhan

2000—2020
In February 2020, the family picked up the body of their 20-year-old Bishal Rayhan's at the airport. The company did not say anything beside that he died in a car accident in Qatar's capital Doha on January 27, 2020. - He had only worked in Qatar for nine months when this happened, says his 47-year-old father Bipul Rayhan. After receiving the body, Bishal's mother has been paralyzed and the father is now trying to survive with his disabled wife and the two children in Bhairab in Kishorganj in central Bangladesh.
— told to the journalistic platform Blankspot
FULL STORY
cardsofqatar.com
Migrant worker
Bangladesh
In memory of

Zobair Ahmed

1988—2020
Years
of
Age
32
World
Cup
Qatar
22
cardsofqatar.com
Migrant worker
Bangladesh
In memory of

Zobair Ahmed

1988—2020
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.”
— told to the journalistic platform Blankspot
FULL STORY
cardsofqatar.com

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