Thread: Critics call foul as Qatar's 2022 World Cup city built with 'slavery'

Critics call foul as Qatar's 2022 World Cup city built with 'slavery'

By Greg Norman Published June 24, 2016 FoxNews.com

Qatar is building it with what human rights activists are calling “modern slavery” – and are hoping that when the dust settles, 450,000 will come.

Lusail Iconic Stadium, part of a $45 billion city springing up on the outskirts of Doha, is scheduled to host the opening and final games of the 2022 World Cup, but for 40,000 workers building it, it is no labor of love.

The migrant workforce faces deadly conditions, miserable accommodations and low wages, say advocates.

“Conditions in camps are simply inhuman,” said Tim Noonan, the director of communications for the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), an organization aimed at protecting workers’ rights. “They are fed food that you wouldn’t feed to an animal in many cases.”

When completed, the government-planned city of Lusail will be home to a population the size of Atlanta’s. Some 200 towers and 27 hotels under construction along with the 86,000-seat stadium will become permanent fixtures on the skyline. Tunnels for an extensive metro system have already been completed.

"As it stands we are yet to launch the final design of the iconic Lusail Stadium," a spokesman for Qatar's Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy told FoxNews.com. "Every stadium is on schedule though and at varying stages of construction."

A website set up by Lusail's developer, the Lusail Real Estate Development Company, boasts that the city "goes beyond the usual concept of a modern city; it is, in fact, a futuristic reflection of wonderful aspirations, technologies and ideas.”

But according to Noonan, people entering the country to work on Lusail and Qatar’s other World Cup stadium projects – which developers say will cost between $8 and 10 billion -- are being misled and exploited.

FIFA is content for the World Cup to be built on modern slavery
- Tim Noonan, director of communications for the International Trade Union Confederation

The migrants are able to work in Qatar as part of a sponsorship with a company, but once they want to leave, he says, labor laws give their employers the final say.

“They are often tricked by unscrupulous migrant agents and are told a story about what sort of job, what salary they will have,” Noonan told FoxNews.com. “And when they arrive they find out that it’s not the case at all. They find out that they are going to get paid less than all the promises they made.”

Noonan said an estimated 1.4 million migrant workers are toiling away in various jobs inside the oil-rich Emirate in “appalling, squalid labor camps,” some crammed 10 to 12 in a single room with non-working ACs in sweltering temperatures.

At the start of June, 13 migrants working on part of a countrywide $200 billion infrastructure investment ahead of the World Cup were killed in a fire in Salwa, the ITUC reported.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino, who visited Qatar in April, however, vowed that conditions for workers are “on the right track.”

“The hosting of the FIFA World Cup is an opportunity to set a benchmark in terms of sustainable and fair working conditions for all workers in Qatar,” Infantino said after meeting with government officials.

Soccer’s governing body has been under fire ever since it awarded the tournament to Qatar in 2010.

Eliane Houlette, France’s financial prosecutor, said in late May that authorities are looking into launching an investigation into how Qatar secured the bid amid allegations that top officials in France, including former President Nicolas Sarkozy, exerted pressure on FIFA to choose the Gulf nation as the 2022 host.

“We are thinking about it, we have several elements that encourage us to investigate," Houlette told French radio Europe 1, according to Reuters.

Executives at Europe’s top soccer leagues also have opposed the decision. FIFA executives decided to move the tournament from the summer to the winter because of Qatar’s heat, but it now creates a scheduling conflict as Europe’s leagues run from August to May.

As for silencing the human rights outcry, Noonan believes Qatar and FIFA have the power and authority to make things better, but are lacking the motivation to do so.

“FIFA is content for the World Cup to be built on modern slavery,” he said

Critics call foul as Qatar's 2022 World Cup city built with 'slavery' | Fox News

Another Clinton scam...
Clinton Foundation took at least $1,250,000 from Qatar and World Cup committee embroiled in soccer bribery scandal - and up to $100,000 from FIFA itself

• 'Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee' is the entity responsible for organizing the Gulf state's 2022 World Cup bid and the resulting preparations
• FIFA itself is also listed as a donor to the foundation, giving up to $100,000
• Clinton Foundation website discloses donations from the committee of between $250,001 and $500,000, including a donation in 2014
• Qatar itself has donated betwen $1 million and $5 million to the foundation, and did it before 2014
• The tiny Middle Eastern country won the rights to host the 2022 global soccer tournament in December 2010
• Clinton Foundation later said Qatar worked toward 'utilizing its research and development for sustainable infrastructure at the 2022 FIFA World Cup'

By DAVID MARTOSKO,
US POLITICAL EDITOR FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
and KIERAN CORCORAN
PUBLISHED: 14:34 EST, 27 May 2015 | UPDATED: 03:18 EST, 28 May 2015

The fast-moving FIFA bribery scandal now has a Clinton connection, after news that the nation of Qatar and its 2022 World Cup organizing committee - and even FIFA itself - donated between $1.3 million and $5.55 million to the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation.

The scandal-hit football world authority is listed by the foundation as having handed over at least $50,001 and as much as $100,000 to the Clinton's controversial organization in a direct cash injection at some point before 2014.

There were also far larger donations from the Qatari committee which won the Middle Eastern nation its position as host of the 2022 World Cup, and Qatar's government.

The committee is listed on the foundation's website as having donated between $250,001 and $500,000, while the government of Qatar gave at least $1,000,000 and potentially as much as $5,000,000.



U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch held a press conference on Wednesday in New York to discuss the wide-ranging FIFA corruption case




A graphic called The Enterprise showing the hierarchy at FIFA is displayed during a news conference announcing an indictment against nine FIFA officials and five corporate executives for racketeering, conspiracy and corruption at a news conference in the Brooklyn borough of New York



SMOKE, NO FIRE (YET): Hillary Clinton's family foundation collected at least $250,001 from Qatar's WOrld Cup committee

It's unclear how much of the money changed hands before December 2010, when Qatar won the rights to host the event. The foundation's website only notes that some of the State of Qatar's money came last year.

FIFA, the Fédération Internationale de Football Association, is the World Cup's governing body.

It is unclear what the body's direct donation was for - the only information provided about the transfer of cash was rough quantity and the fact that it was not made in 2014.

Fourteen people including seven of its top FIFA officials were charged Wednesday with racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy.

The FIFA officials, including vice president Jeffrey Webb, were arrested at a five-star hotel in Zurich, Switzerland and dragged out in handcuffs by Swiss authorities earlier in the day.

U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced the indictments, including some against commercial sports marketers in the United States.

The defendants are accused of taking kick-backs and other bribes in exchange for awarding contracts and other FIFA perks to favored companies, nations and individuals.

Ironically, it's a similar charge to what the Clintons and their sprawling philanthropic organization have faced since April.
Hillary Clinton in particular has had to begin her second run for president under the shadow of claims that her family foundation reaped a windfall – and her husband cashed in on lucrative speeches – in exchange for official favors from the State Department she ran from 2009 to 2013.

The power couple will likely claim that Qatar's success with a World Cup bid and its donations to their foundation are unrelated.

The foundation's website praises the Qatari World Cup committee for being 'committed to utilizing its research and development for sustainable infrastructure at the 2022 FIFA World Cup to improve food security in Qatar, the Middle East, and other arid and water-stressed regions throughout the world.'

And Bill Clinton himself was reportedly livid beyond words when the U.S. lost the bid for the 2022 tournament.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported then that he was so angry after the announcement that Qatar had won that he closed the door to his hotel suite and hurled an object at a mirror, shattering the glass.

Australia and Japan were seen as likely rivals who might have won soccer's ultimate quadrennial event, but not Qatar. The country at the time lacked the basic requirements, including a large enough soccer stadium.

The 'sustainable development' initiative linked to the Clinton Foundation includes a plan to use carbon neutral solar power to fuel air conditions in five stadiums yet to be built.

It's unlikely that the Clinton Foundation was bribed for Bill's support, since the U.S. was in the running and Clinton himself was instrumental in guiding that effort.

But Qatar itself is not above corrupt maneuvering.



A graphic showing the flow of money (legitimate and corrupt) between sports marketing companies and FIFA officials is displayed during the conference by U.S. officials investigating the football world governing body


FIFA officials arrested in May 2015's dramatic dawn raid - VIDEO AT LINK

A Qatari firm linked to the World Cup bid paid former FIFA vice president Jack Warner and his family more than $2.17 million.
And Mohammed Bin Hammam, Qatar's most senior football official at the time, reportedly orchestrated another $3 million in bribes to FIFA members in exchange for their votes.

Bin Hammam was alleged to have used 10 secret accounts to make dozens of payments, including some to 30 African soccer associations' leaders. Those cash recipients were in a position to lobby Africa's four 'executive' FIFA members to vote for Qatar.

Bin Hammam ran for the presidency of FIFA in 2011 but ended up being banned after he was caught trying to buy votes in the process.

A RAID ON FIFA'S CORRIDORS OF POWER: THE HIGH-RANKING EXECUTIVES WHO HAVE BEEN ARRESTED AND THE OTHERS WHO ARE FACING CHARGES

ARRESTED


Jeffrey Webb
The highest profile of those arrested, Cayman Islander Webb is the current FIFA vice president and executive committee member, CONCACAF president and Cayman Islands Football Association (CIFA) president.
The 50-year-old (right) was born and lives in the Cayman Islands and was previously been hailed by Sepp Blatter as the potential successor to the position of FIFA president.
He was one of several FIFA officials to call for the publication of the Garcia Report into allegations of corruption surrounding Russia and Qatar's bids for the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups.
He is also a member of FIFA's Strategic, Finance, Organising World Cup and Emergency Committees.
He was pictured with FA President, Prince William, at a gala dinner to celebrate the Football Association's 150th anniversary in October 2013.



Eugenio Figueredo
Former footballer and now Uruguayan FA executive.
The 83-year-old (right) is a former president of CONMEBOL, the South American football federation.
He has U.S. and Uruguayan citizenship and took over from Nicolas Leoz as CONMEBOL president in 2013.
He was President of the Uruguayan FA from 1997 until 2006.

Costas Takkas
A former general secretary of the Cayman Islands Football Association.
The 58-year-old is an advisor to the CONCACAF president Jeffrey Webb and is a former CIFA general secretary.
The U.S. Department of Justice lists his nationality as United Kingdom and he is understood to have studied at Imperial College in London in 1970s.
He and his wife own a £500,000 home near Turnpike Lane tube station in North London.
He works for the Sonnen technology and mining company.

Jose Maria Marin
Vice-president of the Brazil Football Federation (CBF) and its former president.
The CBF were the football organisation who handed out controversial £16,000 Parmigiani watches at their congress in Sao Paulo a year ago when Marin was chief of the association.
Marin, 83, is a currrent member of the FIFA organising committee for the Olympic football tournaments.
Marin (right) was Brazilian FA president from 2012 to 2015 and was a former striker for Sao Paulo.
Marin caused controversy in 2012 when he was accused of pocketing a medal during a youth football tournament.
Marin was caught on camera and described the incident as 'a real joke'.



Julio Rocha
Current FIFA development officer issued with the task of 'working with Member Associations in identifying and implementing future projects within their respective regions'.

The 64-year-old is a former Central American Football Union (UNCAF) president and Nicaraguan soccer federation (FENIFUT) president.



Eduardo Li
Current FIFA executive committee member-elect, he is the CONCACAF executive committee member and Costa Rican soccer federation (FEDEFUT) president.
A civil engineer, he became President of a Second Division club in 2002 and then head of the Costa Rican FA five years later.
The Costa Rican national (right) was due to join FIFA’s executive committee on Friday.
The 56-year-old also oversaw the hosting of last year’s Under -17 Women’s World Cup in his native Costa Rica.


Rafael Esquivel

Current CONMEBOL executive committee member and Venezuelan soccer federation (FVF) president.
He was appointed head of the FVF in 1988, making him one of the longest serving executives in South American football.
He also sits on FIFA's disciplinary committee.
Esquivel, who was born in Tenerife, Spain in 1946, moved to Venezuela at the age of four, when his family fled the Franco dictatorship in his homeland.

NAMED ON U.S. INDICTMENT, BUT NOT YET ARRESTED

Jack Warner

The 72-year-old is a former FIFA vice president and executive committee member.
In 2007, he described England as an 'irritant', but retracted a year later when the Three Lions agreed a friendly against Trinidad & Tobago and apologised.
In 2006, after being instructed by FIFA to investigate Warner, Ernst & Young estimated that Warner's family had made $1million from reselling 2006 World Cup tickets.
Subsequently, a fine of around that figure was imposed on Warner and his family.
In 2013, the CONCACAF Integrity Committee produced a report which accused Warner and his former cohort Chuck Blazer of mismanagement and massive fraud.
It alleged that Warner concealed his ownership of the land on which CONCACAF's 25 million dollar Joao Havalange Center of Excellence was built, which made him the effective owner of the building.
Warner said: 'As far as I am aware it is baseless and malicious. I left CONCACAF and turned my back on football two years ago. Since then I have had no interest in any football-related matter.'

Nicolas Leoz
The Paraguayan, 86, is a former sports journalist and was president of CONMEBOL from 1986 until 2013.
He was named in court in 2008 as having received of £700,000 in bribes from a Swiss marketing firm.
In 2010, the BBC’s Panorama programme claimed Leoz had taken bribes in the 1990s in relation to the sale of World Cup TV rights.
In May 2011, the then head of the English FA, Lord Triesman, accused Leoz of requesting an honorary knighthood in reward for supporting a World Cup bid for England.
He has denied the allegations.
Email correspondence later revealed Leoz asked for the FA Cup to be named after him.
All nine were named in a 47-count indictment at a federal court in New York, charged with racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering conspiracies, among other offences.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...y-scandal.html

Moved to General - Clinton money trail.

Unholy Alliance: How the 2022 World Cup Brought the Clintons and Qatar Together

Millions of dollars in donations to the Clinton Foundation were made in exchange for political favors

By Michael Sainato •
05/21/16 8:00am



Men and women in traditional Qatari clothing visit the Doha waterfront along the Persian Gulf.(Photo: Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

Qatar’s successful bid for the 2022 World Cup has come under intense scrutiny for high costs and controversial use of migrant labor. According to Newsweek, the infrastructure—expected to cost around $200 billion—is being built by thousands of migrant workers under working conditions likened to slave labor. More than 62 workers will have died for each game played at the 2022 World Cup, The Guardian reports. FIFA has attempted to downplay the controversy surrounding workers’ rights in Qatar, as the organization is still recovering from a corruption crisis in which roughly 40 individuals were indicted on charges by the United States Department of Justice.

The Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee, which won the 2022 World Cup bid against Bill Clinton’s U.S.-led bid, donated between $250,000 and $500,000 to the Clinton Foundation, according to the Daily Beast. Despite heavy allegations that the government of Qatar bribed its way to winning the bid, there has been little if any attention given to the ties between FIFA—which has donated between $50,000 and $100,000 to the Clinton Foundation—Qatar and Hillary Clinton.

The relationship between Qatar and the Clintons began to evolve shortly after Mr. Clinton lost the World Cup bid for the United States in 2010. Curiously, after the government of Qatar donated between one and five million dollars to the Clinton Foundation, the United States arms exports authorized by Ms. Clinton’s State Department increased by over 1,400 percent. E-mails from 2009 published by the State Department show the Qatari royal family lobbied for friendly ties with Ms. Clinton through Cherie Blair—former British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s spouse—who has maintained a close friendship with the Clintons since the nineties. In short, it is safe to infer donations to the Clinton Foundation were made in exchange for political favors conducted off-the-record by Hillary Clinton.
In November 2015, Senator Bernie Sanders criticized Qatar for spending billions on World Cup stadiums while leaving the United States to foot the bill in the fight against ISIS.

“It has been reported that Qatar will spend $200 billion on the 2022 World Cup, including the construction of an enormous number of facilities to host that event—$200 billion on hosting a soccer event, yet very little to fight against ISIS,” Mr. Sanders said in a speech at Georgetown University. “Worse still, it has been widely reported that the government has not been vigilant in stemming the flow of terrorist financing, and that Qatari individuals and organizations funnel money to some of the most extreme terrorist groups, including al Nusra and ISIS. All of this has got to change. Wealthy and powerful Muslim nations in the region can no longer sit on the sidelines and expect the United States to do their work for them.”

Under Hillary Clinton’s term as Secretary of State, the United States not only fought ISIS for Qatar, but provided the country with billions in arms exports around the same time Qatar provided the Clinton Foundation with significant donations. It is highly unlikely a country like Qatar—run by an oppressive monarchy which allows open fundraising for terrorist organizations—donated to the Clinton Foundation because they are philanthropically likeminded. Their mission, according to the Clinton foundation’s website, is to “increase opportunity for women and girls, reduce childhood obesity, create economic opportunity and growth, and help communities address the effects of climate change.” It is doubtful Qatar—whose economy relies on petroleum and natural gas, and whose government subjugates women—is concerned with the Clinton Foundation’s efforts to increase opportunities for women and fight climate change.

Hillary Clinton cannot claim to be the champion of LGBT rights, worker’s rightsand women’s rights while maintaining close ties to a country with zero regard for the rights of any such marginalized groups. Ms. Clinton’s relationship with Qatar is indefensible, and the mainstream media and the Democratic establishment have done nothing to her accountable. Her relationship with Qatar and other corrupt foreign governments and corporations should disqualify Hillary Clinton’s presidential candidacy.
http://observer.com/2016/05/unholy-a...atar-together/

Clinton greed and lies....JMO
Revealed: Qatar's World Cup 'slaves'

Exclusive: Abuse and exploitation of migrant workers preparing emirate for 2022

World Cup construction 'will leave 4,000 migrant workers dead'
Analysis: Qatar 2022 puts Fifa's reputation on the line

Published on Sep 25, 2013
Qatar, one of the richest countries on the planet, will be hosting the World Cup in 2022. But much of the Gulf state's expansion is being built by some of the poorest migrant workers in the world.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5R9Ur44XV8


Pete Pattisson
in Kathmandu and Doha
Wednesday 25 September 2013 12.46 EDTLast modified on Monday 4 April 201612.55 EDT
This article is 2 years old

Dozens of Nepalese migrant labourers have died in Qatar in recent weeks and thousands more are enduring appalling labour abuses, a Guardian investigation has found, raising serious questions about Qatar's preparations to host the 2022 World Cup.

This summer, Nepalese workers died at a rate of almost one a day in Qatar, many of them young men who had sudden heart attacks. The investigation found evidence to suggest that thousands of Nepalese, who make up the single largest group of labourers in Qatar, face exploitation and abuses that amount to modern-day slavery, as defined by the International Labour Organisation, during a building binge paving the way for 2022.

According to documents obtained from the Nepalese embassy in Doha, at least 44 workers died between 4 June and 8 August. More than half died of heart attacks, heart failure or workplace accidents.

The investigation also reveals:

•Evidence of forced labour on a huge World Cup infrastructure project.
• Some Nepalese men have alleged that they have not been paid for months and have had their salaries retained to stop them running away.
• Some workers on other sites say employers routinely confiscate passports and refuse to issue ID cards, in effect reducing them to the status of illegal aliens.
• Some labourers say they have been denied access to free drinking water in the desert heat.
• About 30 Nepalese sought refuge at their embassy in Doha to escape the brutal conditions of their employment.

The allegations suggest a chain of exploitation leading from poor Nepalese villages to Qatari leaders. The overall picture is of one of the richest nations exploiting one of the poorest to get ready for the world's most popular sporting tournament.

"We'd like to leave, but the company won't let us," said one Nepalese migrant employed at Lusail City development, a $45bn (£28bn) city being built from scratch which will include the 90,000-seater stadium that will host the World Cup final. "I'm angry about how this company is treating us, but we're helpless. I regret coming here, but what to do? We were compelled to come just to make a living, but we've had no luck."

The body tasked with organising the World Cup, the Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee, told the Guardian that work had yet to begin on projects directly related to the World Cup. However, it said it was "deeply concerned with the allegations that have been made against certain contractors/sub-contractors working on Lusail City's construction site and considers this issue to be of the utmost seriousness". It added: "We have been informed that the relevant government authorities are conducting an investigation into the allegations."

The Guardian's investigation also found men throughout the wider Qatari construction industry sleeping 12 to a room in places and getting sick through repulsive conditions in filthy hostels. Some say they have been forced to work without pay and left begging for food.

"We were working on an empty stomach for 24 hours; 12 hours' work and then no food all night," said Ram Kumar Mahara, 27. "When I complained, my manager assaulted me, kicked me out of the labour camp I lived in and refused to pay me anything. I had to beg for food from other workers."

Almost all migrant workers have huge debts from Nepal, accrued in order to pay recruitment agents for their jobs. The obligation to repay these debts, combined with the non-payment of wages, confiscation of documents and inability of workers to leave their place of work, constitute forced labour, a form of modern-day slavery estimated to affect up to 21 million people across the globe. So entrenched is this exploitation that the Nepalese ambassador to Qatar, Maya Kumari Sharma, recently described the emirate as an "open jail".



Record of deaths in July 2013, from all causes, held by the Nepalese embassy in Doha. Photograph: /guardian.co.uk"

The evidence uncovered by the Guardian is clear proof of the use of systematic forced labour in Qatar," said Aidan McQuade, director of Anti-Slavery International, which was founded in 1839. "In fact, these working conditions and the astonishing number of deaths of vulnerable workers go beyond forced labour to the slavery of old where human beings were treated as objects. There is no longer a risk that the World Cup might be built on forced labour. It is already happening."

Qatar has the highest ratio of migrant workers to domestic population in the world: more than 90% of the workforce are immigrants and the country is expected to recruit up to 1.5 million more labourers to build the stadiums, roads, ports and hotels needed for the tournament. Nepalese account for about 40% of migrant labourers in Qatar. More than 100,000 Nepalese left for the emirate last year.

The murky system of recruitment brokers in Asia and labour contractors in Qatar leaves them vulnerable to exploitation. The supreme committee has insisted that decent labour standards will be set for all World Cup contracts, but underneath it a complex web of project managers, construction firms and labour suppliers, employment contractors and recruitment agents operate.

According to some estimates, Qatar will spend $100bn on infrastructure projects to support the World Cup. As well as nine state-of-the-art stadiums, the country has committed to $20bn worth of new roads, $4bn for a causeway connecting Qatar to Bahrain, $24bn for a high-speed rail network, and 55,000 hotel rooms to accommodate visiting fans and has almost completed a new airport.

The World Cup is part of an even bigger programme of construction in Qatar designed to remake the tiny desert kingdom over the next two decades. Qatar has yet to start building stadiums for 2022, but has embarked on the big infrastructure projects likesuch as Lusail City that, according to the US project managers, Parsons, "will play a major role during the 2022 Fifa World Cup". The British engineering company Halcrow, part of the CH2M Hill group, is a lead consultant on the Lusail project responsible for "infrastructure design and construction supervision". CH2M Hill was recently appointed the official programme management consultant to the supreme committee. It says it has a "zero tolerance policy for the use of forced labour and other human trafficking practices".

Halcrow said: "Our supervision role of specific construction packages ensures adherence to site contract regulation for health, safety and environment. The terms of employment of a contractor's labour force is not under our direct purview."

Some Nepalese working at Lusail City tell desperate stories. They are saddled with huge debts they are paying back at interest rates of up to 36%, yet say they are forced to work without pay.

"The company has kept two months' salary from each of us to stop us running away," said one man who gave his name as SBD and who works at the Lusail City marina. SBD said he was employed by a subcontractor that supplies labourers for the project. Some workers say their subcontrator has confiscated their passports and refused to issue the ID cards they are entitled to under Qatari law. "Our manager always promises he'll issue [our cards] 'next week'," added a scaffolder who said he had worked in Qatar for two years without being given an ID card.

Without official documentation, migrant workers are in effect reduced to the status of illegal aliens, often unable to leave their place of work without fear of arrest and not entitled to any legal protection. Under the state-run kafalasponsorship system, workers are also unable to change jobs or leave the country without their sponsor company's permission.

A third worker, who was equally reluctant to give his name for fear of reprisal, added: "We'd like to leave, but the company won't let us. If we run away, we become illegal and that makes it hard to find another job. The police could catch us at any time and send us back home. We can't get a resident permit if we leave."

Other workers said they were forced to work long hours in temperatures of up to 50C (122F) without access to drinking water.


Dalli Kahtri and her husband, Lil Man, hold photos of their sons, both of whom died while working as migrants in Malaysia and Qatar. Their younger son (foreground photo) died in Qatar from a heart attack, aged 20. Photograph: Peter Pattison/guardian.co.uk

The Qatari labour ministry said it had strict rules governing working in the heat, the provision of labour and the prompt payment of salaries.

"The ministry enforces this law through periodic inspections to ensure that workers have in fact received their wages in time. If a company does not comply with the law, the ministry applies penalties and refers the case to the judicial authorities."

Lusail Real Estate Company said: "Lusail City will not tolerate breaches of labour or health and safety law. We continually instruct our contractors and their subcontractors of our expectations and their contractual obligations to both us and individual employees. The Guardian have highlighted potentially illegal activities employed by one subcontractor. We take these allegations very seriously and have referred the allegations to the appropriate authorities for investigation. Based on this investigation, we will take appropriate action against any individual or company who has found to have broken the law or contract with us."

The workers' plight makes a mockery of concerns for the 2022 footballers.

"Everyone is talking about the effect of Qatar's extreme heat on a few hundred footballers," said Umesh Upadhyaya, general secretary of the General Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions. "But they are ignoring the hardships, blood and sweat of thousands of migrant workers, who will be building the World Cup stadiums in shifts that can last eight times the length of a football match."

• Read the official response to this story

• The Guardian's investigation into modern-day slavery is supported by Humanity United. Click here for more information

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...rld-cup-slaves

They're all disgusting. The Clinton's are sickening people. What's come out on them in the past few years and especially this year just shows them to be the low rent white trash they always were. That's what they are, low rent white trash, who haven't paid their own way without bribes and influence peddling or government paychecks for the majority of their adult lives, which at their ages, is many many decades of living off the public dole.

We can not let this family re-occupy the American White House. We can't, and we won't.

It's time to work harder than we've ever worked in a Presidential campaign to elect Donald Trump President of the United States. We must get his message out, we must defend him against media lies and misrepresentations, we must push his policies which are what most Americans truly want and need, and do everything we possibly can to win this election.

This is the most important election in my lifetime. If we want to save our country and make it great again, it's truly now or never.