2022 World Cup host, Qatar, has reportedly banished thousand of workers from Doha ahead of the World Cup tournament.
According to reports, the authorities shut down and evacuated over a dozen buildings.
The move has forced the mainly African and Asian workers out of their residences, with many seeking shelter in shanties and pavements outside the evacuated structures -their former homes.
The development is coming with just three weeks remaining for the kickoff of the 2022 World Cup.
Meanwhile, there has been mounting criticism of how Qatar is treating migrant workers who are laboring daily in the country.
Qatar embarked on monstrous and heavy construction projects to fix stadiums as they prepare to host the world in the upcoming 2022 World Cup.
Most of the workers are migrant workers from Africa, and a small fraction is of Asian descent.
The country have been slammed for its social restrictive laws and discriminatory treatments of the migrants.
According to reports, the workers toil in extremely inhumane conditions with no elaborate compensation plans by the Qatari government.
Some of the workers have reportedly sustained life-threatening injuries, with others dying in the process without a plan of any compensation by Qatar.
The latest development is expected to cause a further uproar, as agitations over the Qatari treatment of foreign nationals will continue.
At a point, Qatar had summoned the German Ambassador to the country after it was alleged that the German interior minister had slammed FIFA for awarding the World Cup to Qatar with its poor human right record.
Over a thousand evicted
At one building, which residents said housed 1,200 people in Doha’s Al Mansoura district, authorities told people at about 8pm on Wednesday that they had just two hours to leave.
Municipal officials returned around 10.30pm, forced everyone out and locked the doors to the building, they said. Some men had not been able to return in time to collect their belongings
“We don’t have anywhere to go,” one man told Reuters the next day, as he prepared to sleep out for a second night with around 10 other men, some of them shirtless in the autumn heat and humidity of the Gulf Arab state.
He, and most other workers who spoke to Reuters, declined to give their names or personal details for fear of reprisals from the authorities or employers.
Nearby, five men were loading a mattress and a small fridge into the back of a pickup truck. They said they had found a room in Sumaysimah, about 25 miles north of Doha.
However, the Qatari government have responded to the development. According to them, the latest evictions is not related to the World Cup, but were conducted “in line with ongoing comprehensive and long-term plans to re-organise areas of Doha.”
They added that those affected have been rehoused and settled in safer and better accommodations and that proper notice was served to residents before the evacuation.
“All have since been rehoused in safe and appropriate accommodation. Also, the evacuation were done with proper notice”.
Meanwhile, world’s football governing body, FIFA is yet to comment after the incident despite being contacted.
Qatar’s World Cup organizers have reportedly directed all inquiries to the government.
