Someone once told me that international sports are a unifying factor.
“You can be of whatever religion, ethnicity and political affiliations, but you would put all of those differences aside once you cheer for your national team on the international stage.”
In fact, solidarity, respect and justice are among the core values of international sports organizers such as FIFA and the Olympics. The Olympics website further explains that their goal is to “contribute to building a peaceful and better world.”
But the reality of international sports is not as ethereal as it sounds. Often, these games that are supposed to promote peace and justice have ignored and exacerbated human rights violations. Let’s take a look at some examples of humanitarian issues in the sports world.
Human Rights Violations
Slavery at the Stadium: Exploitation of Migrant Workers in Qatar
According to Amnesty International, thousands of migrant workers from Bangladesh, India and Nepal are being exploited to build the Khalifa Stadium for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Doha, Qatar.
Most of the migrant workers left for Qatar to escape poverty in their home countries; however, to get a job abroad, they had to pay huge sums of money to recruitment agencies. These fees range from $500-4,300. Consequently, most migrant workers were burdened with debt while trying to support their families. These South Asian migrant workers receive employment by joining the Kafala employment system. The Kafala system gives private citizens and companies in most Arab Gulf countries almost total control over migrant workers’ employment and immigration status. The total control of migrant workers by private sectors made the migrant workers more susceptible to exploitation.
Once in Qatar, these migrant workers found that their recruitment agency lied about their salary and job. One migrant worker from Nepal was promised a monthly salary of $300 in his home country but only received a monthly salary of $190 once in Qatar. It is also common for workers not to receive their salaries for months, to the point that they could not even feed themselves.
Another migrant worker admitted that he was promised a job as an electrician. He was given this job for the first two months and then was forced to work as an iron-fitter. The Global Post reported that these migrant workers had to work as construction laborers for 8-12 hours every day under 105-degree heat. Furthermore, they had to live in dirty, unsafe and cramped living spaces with seven other people. These migrant workers had no choice but to comply with their employers because they were not allowed to leave the worksite or change jobs.
It is impossible to leave because employers confiscate their passports once they arrive in Qatar. Employers often confiscate passports to threaten and keep the migrant workers in check when they are starting to rebel against the exploitative work system. Because of this, migrant workers could not request an exit permit and leave the country. In some cases, employers would force migrant workers to stay even after their visa has expired. This condition traps them in the cycle of exploitation as they are afraid of imprisonment once they escape.
After several waves of petition signing, the Qatar government finally reformed the labor law in 2020. This new law will allow migrant workers to change jobs without employer permission and set a higher minimum wage for all workers, regardless of nationality.
However, Human Rights Watch (HRW) argued that the success of this new law will depend on the government’s ability to monitor and enforce them. Although years of protests and petitions finally bore fruit, news media should follow-up and check if these laws are really implemented and that migrant workers’ rights are protected.
Evictions of People in Communities Experiencing Poverty for World Cups in South Africa and Brazil
To host the World Cup, poor communities in the host country had to sacrifice their homes and source of income.
To make space for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in Cape Town, South Africa, tens of thousands of people living in poor communities were forcibly moved to a temporary settlement called Blikkiesdorp. Blikkiesdorp is an area filled with square tin houses that were built in 2008 for people who lived in buildings illegally. The people who were evicted likened the Blikkiesdorp to a concentration camp.
Small, local vendors who could not afford FIFA’s expensive rent were also kicked out from FIFA’s “exclusive zone” near the stadium and harassed by officials. In a blink of an eye, these people lost their only means of livelihood to a one-time international sporting event.
Unfortunately, this does not stop in South Africa. Four years later, during the 2014 World Cup in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, about 19,000 people in poor communities were also forcibly displaced. Referring to the United Nations report on adequate housing, the Global Post reported that even though they were given better or equal living conditions, most of the displaced people in Brazil ended up worse off than they started.
These cases show that the World Cup may not be as innocuous as we think it is.
Knowing how a single event could have a devastating impact on so many local communities in the host country, FIFA should put these issues into consideration as they choose a host country and plan logistics for the event. We can do our part in learning about how the World Cup could affect local communities, and if necessary, create, share and sign petitions to keep FIFA and the host country accountable.
Ignoring Human Rights Issues in Host Countries
Beijing Winter Olympics 2022
After the Olympics chose Beijing, China to host the 2022 Winter Olympics, the International Olympics Committee (IOC) received backlash from human rights groups. In Dec. 2020, the human rights coalition representing ethnic minority groups in China accused the IOC of turning a blind eye on human rights violations towards the Uighurs.
In a statement to the Associated Press, the IOC stated that human rights issues are not their issue, as their only responsibility is to host a sporting event; however, the human rights coalition argued in the open letter that the IOC even ignored the violence done by Chinese authorities towards peaceful protesters of the Olympic games.
The human rights coalition also reminded that the IOC awarded the 2008 Olympics to China so that they would improve human rights in the country. If human rights abuses in China are much worse about twelve years after the first Beijing Olympics, does China still deserve to host the international games?
Learn more about Human Rights Issue in China:
- The Trump Administration’s “Ban” on Cotton from China Won’t Solve the Human Rights Crisis. Here’s Why.
- What You Should Know About the Uighur Human Rights Crisis
You can also take action in keeping the IOC and China accountable by signing and sharing these petitions:
- Revoke Beijing’s right to host the 2022 Winter Olympics on human rights ground
- China: Respect Uyghur Rights Before Hosting 2022 Olympics
Sports as Image-Laundering: Saudi Arabia F1 Deal
In 2015, F1– the highest class of international auto racing for single-seater racing cars– released a Statement of Commitment to Respect for Human Rights following a complaint filed by an American human rights group regarding the F1 race in Bahrain. Despite committing to respecting internationally recognized human rights, F1 leaders did not address past human rights violations in Saudi Arabia when announcing their partnership on Nov. 5, 2020.
According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), Saudi Arabia has been using international sports events, such as the World Heavyweight Title in 2019, to distract the world from scrutinizing its human rights violations in previous years. One of the more recent and well-known cases was the murder of a Washington Post reporter, Jamal Kashoggi, in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018. As of today, the Saudi Arabian government still denied that they had anything to do with the murder.
Another human rights violation is the imprisonment of women’s activists who advocated for women to be allowed to drive. Although Saudi Arabia has allowed women to drive, women’s activists are still kept in prison. Because these activists are advocating for issues that are under the direct influence of F1, HRW is urging that F1 would press Saudi Arabia for the release of the women activists and advocate for more press freedom as a requirement for their partnership.
You can help keep Saudi Arabia accountable by signing and sharing these petitions:
- Hold Saudi Arabia Accountable – Free Saudi Activists!
- Saudi Arabia: Free jailed activists
- Demand the United Nations Investigate the Murder of Jamal Khashoggi
All this to say, sports are not inherently bad. Sports are good for the body and soul and they can be a means for solidarity. However, international sporting events have been responsible for slavery, evictions and sports-washing and we should not just let them sweep these issues under the rug.
We may enjoy watching and participating in international sporting events, but we should remember to keep the organizers accountable when human rights are violated. Although issues like this require systemic changes and policy change, we can do our part by educating ourselves about how these events are organized, raising awareness of humanitarian issues in sports and taking action by participating in protests and signing petitions.
