Migrant workers who built luxury offices used by Qatar's 2022 football World Cup organizers said that "they have not been paid for more than a year and are now working illegally from cockroach-infested lodgings," according to Booth & Pattisson of the London GUARDIAN. Officials in Qatar's Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy have been using offices on the 38th and 39th floors of Doha's landmark al-Bidda skyscraper -- known as the Tower of Football -- "which were fitted out by men from Nepal, Sri Lanka and India who say they have not been paid for up to 13 months' work." The project was directly commissioned by the Qatar government and the workers' plight "is set to raise fresh doubts over the autocratic emirate's commitment to labour rights as construction starts this year on five new stadiums for the World Cup." Some of the workers "have not been paid, despite complaining to the Qatari authorities months ago and being owed wages as modest as" £6 ($10) a day. One worker said, "We don't know how much they are spending on the World Cup, but we just need our salary." Qatar's World Cup organizing committee confirmed that "it had been granted use of temporary offices on the floors fitted out by the unpaid workers." It said it was "heavily dismayed to learn of the behaviour of Lee Trading with regard to the timely payment of its workers" (GUARDIAN, 7/28).
