The Sacrifice for Qatar
© Joseph Khakshouri
Portraits of widows of migrant workers who died building the infrastructure in Qatar for the FIFA World Cup. Accompanied by 59 second mini documentaries where they tell their story.
The objective of this story is to take a dignified look at the women who were robbed of their partner and breadwinner. To add insult to injury most of them didn’t even get part of the compensation they are due from Qatar, the employers, or the insurance companies if any at all. They sometimes have to wait weeks for the husband’s body to be repatriated. 6,500 Migrant workers are dead. Such an absurdly high number. I wanted to put a face to the statistic, and let the viewer look in the eyes of the Wives that are left to provide for their family.
Visually I wanted to step away from the idea of misery porn, and make the pictures with all the vibrance and beauty that is in India to juxtapose it with the horrible situation these women are in. Some of them are enraged, some are broken. The one thing they all have in common is that they will be suffering whilre the rest of the world looks to Qatar for entertainment.
An estimated 6,500 Migrant workers have died in Qatar, since they drew the rights to host the FIFA World Cup. There has been a long tradition of migrant workers, throughout the UAE, doing a host of jobs from office to day labor. There has also been a long tradition of exploitation of these workers. With Qatar’s push for new infrastructure, to be able to host the FIFA World Cup, allot more labourers were needed.
They were brought in by agents from Bangladesh, Nepal, and India. Indians make up the lions share of workers there. What is not well known is that the agents come to the villages with the promise of good paying jobs. In many cases this turns out to be untrue. The visas they were promised end up being 1 month tourist visas rater than 3 month work visas. As many of the migrants take up loans to pay the agents and their trip, they have no choice but to stay and try to work for whatever salary they can get. This often results in them overstaying their visas, which is illegal. With the prospect of jail time looming over a migrant who is in Qatar illegally, unscrupulous employers take advantage of their predicament, and offer them jobs with next to no pay, let alone insurance safety equipment or free time.
When accidents do happen, they are left to fend for themselves. They have to cover their hospital bills on their own. In the event that there is a work related accident resulting in death, there is no insurance to help the families that are left behind. The companies are meant to give compensation to the families, which often requires legal action their part. The formula of illiteracy, dept, a dead breadwinner, and a family that needs money now, does not set the stage for taking a large foreign company to court.
Many of the women I met have to do so called Culie work, which are minimum wage day jobs, such as picking weeds out of agricultural fields, when such work is available. They also roll Bidis, a cheap Indian Cigarette. One of the women I met rolls 6-800 Bidis a day and earns 2-300 Rupees a day. i.e. 2-3 USD per day.
They have to take their kids out of school to help earning money. This can become a cycle of poverty that may take generations to get out of.
Amnesty International released their report on the absolutely atrocious conditions migrant workers face in Qatar. Since then, nothing much seems to have happened to remedy the situation.
On the contrary, now that the EU is looking to Qatar as a potential new Oil and Gas supplier, human rights seem to be treated like a minor inconvenience.
It was around the time of the Amnesty International Report that I had a portrait session with Sepp Blatter, the disgraced former head of FIFA. During the interview he was so full of self pity, that it made me furious. As he gave his “poor me” interview, migrant workers were being cheated, and maimed, they were dying.
That was the day I decided I wanted to meet some of the widows of these migrant workers, and put a face on the statistics.
It was a long process that took month
click to view the complete set of images in the archive
© Joseph Khakshouri
Portraits of widows of migrant workers who died building the infrastructure in Qatar for the FIFA World Cup. Accompanied by 59 second mini documentaries where they tell their story.
The objective of this story is to take a dignified look at the women who were robbed of their partner and breadwinner. To add insult to injury most of them didn’t even get part of the compensation they are due from Qatar, the employers, or the insurance companies if any at all. They sometimes have to wait weeks for the husband’s body to be repatriated. 6,500 Migrant workers are dead. Such an absurdly high number. I wanted to put a face to the statistic, and let the viewer look in the eyes of the Wives that are left to provide for their family.
Visually I wanted to step away from the idea of misery porn, and make the pictures with all the vibrance and beauty that is in India to juxtapose it with the horrible situation these women are in. Some of them are enraged, some are broken. The one thing they all have in common is that they will be suffering whilre the rest of the world looks to Qatar for entertainment.
An estimated 6,500 Migrant workers have died in Qatar, since they drew the rights to host the FIFA World Cup. There has been a long tradition of migrant workers, throughout the UAE, doing a host of jobs from office to day labor. There has also been a long tradition of exploitation of these workers. With Qatar’s push for new infrastructure, to be able to host the FIFA World Cup, allot more labourers were needed.
They were brought in by agents from Bangladesh, Nepal, and India. Indians make up the lions share of workers there. What is not well known is that the agents come to the villages with the promise of good paying jobs. In many cases this turns out to be untrue. The visas they were promised end up being 1 month tourist visas rater than 3 month work visas. As many of the migrants take up loans to pay the agents and their trip, they have no choice but to stay and try to work for whatever salary they can get. This often results in them overstaying their visas, which is illegal. With the prospect of jail time looming over a migrant who is in Qatar illegally, unscrupulous employers take advantage of their predicament, and offer them jobs with next to no pay, let alone insurance safety equipment or free time.
When accidents do happen, they are left to fend for themselves. They have to cover their hospital bills on their own. In the event that there is a work related accident resulting in death, there is no insurance to help the families that are left behind. The companies are meant to give compensation to the families, which often requires legal action their part. The formula of illiteracy, dept, a dead breadwinner, and a family that needs money now, does not set the stage for taking a large foreign company to court.
Many of the women I met have to do so called Culie work, which are minimum wage day jobs, such as picking weeds out of agricultural fields, when such work is available. They also roll Bidis, a cheap Indian Cigarette. One of the women I met rolls 6-800 Bidis a day and earns 2-300 Rupees a day. i.e. 2-3 USD per day.
They have to take their kids out of school to help earning money. This can become a cycle of poverty that may take generations to get out of.
Amnesty International released their report on the absolutely atrocious conditions migrant workers face in Qatar. Since then, nothing much seems to have happened to remedy the situation.
On the contrary, now that the EU is looking to Qatar as a potential new Oil and Gas supplier, human rights seem to be treated like a minor inconvenience.
It was around the time of the Amnesty International Report that I had a portrait session with Sepp Blatter, the disgraced former head of FIFA. During the interview he was so full of self pity, that it made me furious. As he gave his “poor me” interview, migrant workers were being cheated, and maimed, they were dying.
That was the day I decided I wanted to meet some of the widows of these migrant workers, and put a face on the statistics.
It was a long process that took month
click to view the complete set of images in the archive