At Qatar World Cup, Selling Beer Will Get Same Penalty as Slavery

Are you skeptical about the choice of Qatar for the 2022 World Cup? Well, conservative drinking laws aside, here’s why you should be downright outraged: the country has an abysmal human trafficking record. Qataris have a staggeringly high GDP, due to the country’s huge production of liquefied natural gas. But much of that wealth is created at the expense of slave labor. And as a crime, human trafficking in Qatar is considered as serious as selling booze.

The government of Qatar does not collect statistics on people trafficked through the country, but there’s substantial evidence that the problem is dire. According to a 2007 report by the U.S. Department of State, Qatar has failed to prosecute traffickers, comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking, and adequately protect victims.  Under Qatar’s criminal law, the proscribed penalty for forced labor trafficking is a whopping 6 months behind bars. That's about the same as the punishment for selling alcohol without a license. But guess what, Qatar? Selling a child is not equivalent to selling a Yuengling.

Each year, thousands of migrant workers from countries as diverse as India, the Philippines and Ethiopia travel to Qatar to work in nearly every industry in the country. These laborers are brought to the country on two-year contracts, which encourages a strict turnover rate to prevent lengthy residency. Unsurprisingly, these workers often discover their terms of employment are vastly different than what they agreed to, and wind up in involuntary servitude. Their abusers threaten deportation, and confiscate the workers’ passports and exit permits.  Qatar’s labor exploitation problems are so bad, there’s a website -- Qatarsucks.com -- dedicated solely to the stories of workers victimized by this process.

Qatar has taken some modest steps to combat trafficking, namely sponsoring an anti-trafficking campaign, strengthening laws to protect workers, and ratifying the UN Trafficking in Persons protocol. But these actions are hardly enough to make a dent in the country’s massive problem, and handing them the World Cup — a huge draw for sex traffickers — is hardly going to help. Luckily, there’s time to make a difference.

But if Qatar fails to enact comprehensive anti-trafficking legislation, increase efforts to investigate and prosecute offenders, and consistently identify and support victims by 2022, I suggest staying home, having a beer, and boycotting the World Cup.  Send this petition to your friends and legislatures, and let them know that you care about trafficking victims more than soccer.

Photo by: mtraker