Story By: Joseph Golder, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Golder’s News And Sport
French prosecutors are investigating the Vinci construction firm over allegations they used “forced labour” and engaged in “human trafficking” on the building sites of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
French media report that a magistrate has been put in charge of investigating Vinci’s activities in Qatar after it was alleged workers working on the World Cup venues there are the victims of “forced labour” and “human trafficking”.
The workers allegedly had their passports confiscated and had to work up to 77 hours a week in insalubrious conditions.
The magistrate’s appointment was revealed on Tuesday (25th February). Their identity has not yet been revealed.
The case was first opened by French authorities on 25th November 2019 after numerous complaints had been filed since 2018 by two organisations named as Sherpa and the ‘Comite contre l’esclavage moderne’ (CCEM; ‘The comity against modern-day slavery’).
The complaint was filed with accusations that Vinci, Vinci Construction Grand Projets (VCGP), its Qatari subsidy – Qatari Diar Vinci Construction (QDVC) and their representatives “reduced [workers] to slavery, trafficked human beings”, made them do “work incompatible with human dignity”, deliberately put people in danger, and caused involuntary injuries.
Sherpa, which aims to defend the victims of financial crimes, had already filed a complaint in March 2015 in the French city of Nanterre against Vinci Construction Grands Projets and its subsidiary in Qatar, but in February 2019, the preliminary case was initially thrown out.
This new case comes after Sherpa investigated in India in September 2018 and this led to testimony from former workers.
Vinci told AFP: “Vinci refutes all of Sherpa’s allegations,” adding that “many initiatives had been implemented over the past 10 years in Qatar which inspired new regulations on workers’ rights implemented recently by the country.”
An audit carried out in early January 2019 by several French workers’ unions (CGT, CFDT and the CFE-CGC) within the group’s Qatari activities also concluded that there were good practices on the ground in terms of recruitment and employment.
As well as Sherpa and the CCEM, seven Indian and Nepalese workers have reportedly filed complaints too.
The Al Janoub Stadium, formerly known as the Al Wakrah stadium, and which was inaugurated on 16th May 2019, caused mockery on social media with many saying that from above, it looked like a “giant vagina”.
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