Steve Tombs highlights the poor response to work-related deaths in the UK, while Christopher Bertram says holding the event in Qatar allowed many fans from Africa to attend, which would not have been possible in a European country
Marina Hyde rightly highlights the reported deaths of thousands of workers in the run-up to Qatar’s sportswashing World Cup (Qatar 2022: this World Cup has taken place in a crime scene, 17 December). But Great Britain has no moral or legal high ground here.
In its most recent (2021-22) statistics, the “enforcement” agency, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), recorded 123 worker fatalities alongside 80 work-related fatal injuries to members of the public. It also published an estimate of 13,000 deaths as a result of work-related ill health. Other data – for example, from the UN or the Hazards Campaign – estimates total deaths caused by work at between 37,000 and 61,000, each year, every year. Yet these attract virtually no enforcement (let alone media or political) response.