Migrants hired to work the opening match of the World Cup waited all day without food or water

A group of more than 200 migrant workers hired to work in concession during Qatar’s opening World Cup match said they ran out of food, water and toilet facilities during seven hours waiting for their assignments.

Standing in front of Al-Khor’s Al Bayt stadium resembling a Bedouin tent, the workers desperately tried to contact their employer without success.

Several said they were asked to report at a facility near the arena before 10am, nine hours earlier the scheduled start of the game.

The group, made up mostly of men from Indiahe said he signed contracts to work the World Cup that guaranteed one meal a day and just under $1,000 for 55 days.

“It’s a bad experience,” said one group member.

The worker declined to give his name out of fear of upsetting his employers, but added:

“Our coordinator told us to come here before 9, but nobody was there.”

The group of concession workers was only a small part of the army of low paid workers who Qatar contract to prepare the country to host the World Cup.

The treatment of workers in Qatar and elsewhere in the Gulf came under much scrutiny in the years leading up to the event.

Human rights groups estimate several thousand migrants have died of injuries, heat-related issues and other health concerns as Qatar embarked on a rebuilding of 200,000 million dollars to prepare for the month-long tournament.

Qatar strongly disputes that total, noting that it did reforms in their labor laws.

Concession workers weren’t the only ones left frustrated under Sunday’s scorching desert sun: A group of 20 Filipino women, hired to sell scarves, found themselves in a similar situation:

three hours after arriving at the stadium, they had been unable to locate the company that hired them.

“We walked a lot; this is not good,” said one of the women.

They were also trying to contact their company representatives with no success.

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