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

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.

The body of Mohammad Russel Parvez was found in a trash bin in the Qatar few days before Christmas in 2020. He was 33 and an only son. Shirina Akhter Banu, his mother, received his body in the home village, Doulatpur, in western Bangladesh the following month. He was a construction worker, when he fell from a 10-story building, his mother says. After his death, the wife moved in with his parents. She was satisfied with the financial compensation from the company, but no money in the world can replace the loss of a human life, she says.

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.

Four years ago, Som Bahadur Shrestha started to work as a security guard. – Since then, he did not take a single day off and was never back home, says his daughter Sangita Shrestha. They were planning for his homecoming when they found out he had died in his sleep. – The day before he died, he was shopping for his son's birthday, he bought a watch for our mother and shoes for my brother. When the body arrived at the airport together with the father's belongings, all the presents were gone. – We have tried to contact his employer, but now we have given up, says the daughter.

In May 2020, Delowar Hossaini's body returned to the capital Dhaka. When he suffered a stroke, he was taken to a hospital, but his life could not be saved. The family says it was his second stroke since he started working on the irrigated farm. - After the first one, he traveled home for a while to recharge, says the widow Nasrin Akhter. The family received compensation from the company and the government in Bangladesh. With that money, the family became debt free. As soon as her two sons, who are now in high school, have graduated, they both plan to travel to Qatar.

The heavy rains in Qatar in the autumn of 2020 were a death sentence for Mohammad Shahid Miah. The water found its way to the floor where he lived and reached the electricity. When Miah stepped on the wet floor, he was electrified and died. Mohammad Shahid Miah had paid a recruitment company more than $ 4,800 for the job in Qatar. The debt remains after his death and his parents now have to pay. His father says they are still waiting for compensation from the government.