Qatar 2022: About 500 workers died on construction site – Qatari official, al-Thawadi

The total number of workers who died during the construction and renovations of stadia in Qatar has been put between 400 and 500 a top Qatari official has said.

This is by far the country’s highest figure of casualties in history, according to Daily Mail.

This  was confirmed by secretary-general of Qatar’s Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, Hassan al-Thawadi, during an interview with a British journalist Piers Morgan.

Morgan asked Mr al-Thawadi: ‘What is the honest, realistic total do you think of migrant workers who died from… as a result of work they’re doing for the World Cup in totality?’

“The estimate is around 400, between 400 and 500… I don’t have the exact number.

“That’s something that’s been discussed.’ The figure is a drastically higher number than any other previously offered by Doha”, Mr al-Thawadi replied.

In a later statement issued regarding the controversial figures, the Supreme Committee said Mr al-Thawadi was referring to, “national statistics covering the period of 2014-20 for all work-related fatalities (414) nationwide in Qatar, covering all sectors and nationalities”.

A foreign based publication had erroneously put the figures at 6,500 since the country got the hosting right in 2010,  but it has now been debunked by the Qatari official.