by PIERRE BARBANCEY
(translated from French by HENRY CRAPO
(After visiting a camp for workers, Pierre Barbancey was arrested by the Doha police for “illegal practice of journalism”, before being released. In this major report, he recounts how a million foreign wage-earners, modern day slaves, are exploited in the construction of the infrastructures for the 2022 World Cup of soccer. Hundreds have already died in the process. [1])
Introduction Original French version
Our special envoy Pierre Barbancey went off those paths authorised by the petro-monarchy. Arrested and interrogated for several hours by the police for “illegal practice of journalism”, he here bears witness to what, as we understand, they didn’t want him to be able to see.
When the delegation from the Building and Wood Workers’ International (IBB) visited Qatar, last week [2], the first workers’ camp the authorities permitted them to visit is a center situated in the gas production zone of Ras Laffan, about an hour outside Doha. An exceptional sight, especially at night, with enormous vacillating flames emerging from the towers. Here, one speaks not of a “camp”, but of a “global village”. The 47,000 migrants we find there are supposed to live in peace, enjoy cricket fields and tennis courts, and a swimming pool. “Nothing must [adversely] affect their well-being, one of those responsible – a Brit – tells us. While the security personnel of the “village” are present, the workers questioned make only positive comments. When we manage to establish a distance, and to talk quietly, the realty is clearly different, with bedrooms for 8 persons or difficult access to medical care, impossibility to leave Doha, wages too low. When one is fearful, one doesn’t complain.
Human distress explodes in your face
It was clearly necessary to look elsewhere, without denying this reality. This is what I did, in the company of another French journalist and an American photographer. Far from the four-star “village” of Ras Laffan, the living conditions are truly horrifying, and promiscuity inevitable. The human distress explodes in your face, despite the dignity of these migrants, who, until then, accepted the unacceptable because they had to find a way to feed their families some thousands of kilometres away. The British daily paper The Guardian also revealed the horror of this supposedly human condition. The Qatar authorities, on several occasions, let it be known that they intended to improve the situation. Notably by increasing the number of inspectors on the work sites, by making announcements that employers should not retain passports, by announcing the possible creation of “workers’ committees”, or by studying the experience of the Arab Emirates concerning the possible elimination of the “sponsorship” requirement (kafala) a veritable slave bracelet placed around the ankle of these migrants. Our inquiries can only reinforce this practice, if it is real.
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