Qatar death toll ‘up to 500’

Atop Qatari official involved in the country’s World Cup organisation has put the number of worker deaths for the tournament “between 400 and 500” for the first time, a drastically higher number than any other previously offered by Doha.

The comment by Hassan al-thawadi, secretarygeneral of Qatar’s supreme committee for delivery and legacy, appeared to come off the cuff during an interview with British journalist Piers Morgan.

It also threatened to reinvigorate criticism by human rights groups over the cost of hosting the Middle East’s first World

Cup for the migrant labourers who built the more than $200 billion (£1.7bn) worth of stadiums, metro lines and new infrastructure.

During the interview, portions of which Morgan posted online, the journalist asks Mr althawadi: “What is the honest, realistic total do you think of migrant workers who died from... as a result of work they’re doing for the World Cup in totality?”

Mr al-thawadi replies: “The estimate is around 400, between 400 and 500. I don’t have the exact number. That’s something that’s been discussed.”

But that figure has not previously been discussed publicly. Reports from the Supreme Committee dating from 2014 to the end of 2021 only include the number of deaths of workers involved in building and refurbishing the stadiums now hosting the World Cup.

Those figures put the total number of deaths at 40, and include 37 from what the Qataris describe as non-work incidents, such as heart attacks.

In a later statement, the supreme committee said Mr al-thawadi was referring to “national statistics covering the period of 2014-20 for all work-related fatalities (414) nationwide in Qatar, covering all sectors and nationalities”.