Rup Chandra Rumba, a 27-year-old scaffolder from Nepal was working at the 2022 World Cup stadium site when he died in 2019 of ‘cardio respiratory failure due to natural cause’.
Mr. Rumba, who had a medical certificate proving he was in good health, died in an unapproved lodging facility. Through no fault of his own, he was employed by an unlicensed firm Maskey Contracting. These two violations of Qatar’s ‘Worker Welfare Standards are listed in the country’s official records.
A few months later, Mr. Rumba’s widow, Nirmala Pakhrin, received a letter from Hassan Al Thawadi, chairman of the Supreme Commission for Delivery and Heritage, which is responsible for organizing this winter’s World Cup. Rumba’s widow was told she was ineligible for compensation because her husband had not been in Qatar for less than a year, but Al Thawadi said his ‘team’ had spoken to Musky and he said he had paid the £1,500 he received from the company in ‘good faith’.
Who is to be held responsible prior to Qatar World Cup?
The Mail on Sunday asked the board specifically who was held responsible for violating social standards and what sanctions were imposed. According to a spokesman, “Maskey Contracting was prohibited from working on any Supreme Committee project since being identified and demoilised.”
We asked if there was a formula used to calculate the £1,500 paid, however, no information was provided. We asked who was responsible for the deaths of five other World Cup workers, ‘arose after deficiencies in emergency medical response procedures’ stated the Supreme Committee report. No information was provided as to whether compensation for these victims was paid or not, nor were any questions answered.
What is more worrying is the lack of details regarding the deaths of migrant workers in Qatar is not uncommon. A comprehensive study by Mail on Sunday found that the deaths of 2,823 working-age foreigners in Qatar since 2011 were unexplained or “unclassified” to use formal language.
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