Tromsø release football kit highlighting human rights concerns in Qatar
The Norwegian top-flight club Tromsø have released a kit featuring a QR code that puts the spotlight on human rights issues in Qatar with just under a year until the World Cup there.
The club say the third kit has been created in collaboration with Amnesty International and is the world’s first to feature a QR code which will take those who scan it to a page featuring detailed information on conditions in Qatar.
“Tromsø were the first professional club to speak out against the inhumane conditions in the country,” read a statement on the club’s website. “We hoped Fifa and Qatar would listen but obviously money still trumps human rights and human lives. How many human rights violations will it take before the football community unites to demand better protection for migrant workers?”
The kit is being promoted by Malcolm Bidali, a former migrant worker and labour activist who was arrested in Qatar for writing an online blog about the brutal conditions he faced there.
Bidali speaks at length in a video on Tromsø’s website about his experience of being detained and interrogated in Qatar and the “power imbalance” that he believes exists between employer and employee for migrant workers in the Gulf state.
“It’s innovative and will raise awareness about the things that are happening in Qatar,” he said. “It’s a brilliant, brilliant move.”
Tromsø started the discussion about Qatar in Norway by suggesting that teams should boycott the tournament. In March Norway’s players wore T-shirts bearing the slogan “Human rights – on and off the pitch” before a World Cup qualifier against Gibraltar.
In promoting the kit the club said, “We must never look the other way when some use our beautiful game to overshadow human rights violations. We can change this together. Stop sportswashing. Keep the game clean.”
Last year Qatar passed into law reforms that were said largely to bring an end to the kafala – or sponsorship – system, under which workers are unable to change jobs without their employer’s permission. However, human rights groups said the measures did not go far enough and some migrant workers were still earning as little as £1 an hour. The government of Qatar has consistently rejected Amnesty’s assertion that labour reforms have not translated into changes on the ground for migrant workers.