Honourable senators, as many of us are watching the World Cup, let us also remember 23-year-old Tej Narayan Tharu from Nepal. In August 2018, Tej died working on the Al Wakrah stadium being built for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. His mother Sita expressed anguish with these words:

I’m heartbroken. My son has gone for ever. He’s never coming back. He has a small daughter. Life is long and hard. How will she survive?

Senators, those are the heartbreaking words of one mother. Unfortunately, there are thousands of mothers, like her, of migrant workers in Qatar, working towards the World Cup.

In 2021, Human Rights Watch found that foreign workers continued to suffer from punitive and illegal wage deductions, and faced months of unpaid wages for long hours of grueling work in unsafe conditions, with passport confiscations, high recruitment fees and deceptive recruitment practices continuing to be widespread.

Qatar has a labour force of more than 2 million working under these conditions. Even more horrifically, a Guardian investigation published last year found that more than 6,500 migrant workers from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have died in Qatar since it won the right to host the World Cup.

Sadly, FIFA continues to be complicit in this tragedy. Instead of condemning the regime, they have written to all 32 teams competing at the World Cup, telling them to “now focus on the football!”

Thankfully, certain teams and nations have spoken up. For example, Paris and other French cities are refusing to screen matches in public areas, despite France being the defending champion.

Denmark is wearing “toned-down” shirts in protest, with kit provider Hummel saying they “don’t wish to be visible during a tournament that has cost thousands of people their lives.”

European football associations from Belgium, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden and Switzerland have endorsed calls for a compensation fund for migrant workers.

As we become engrossed in these games, let us remember victims like Tej, and 29-year-old Mohammad Shahid Miah, from Bangladesh, who died in one of the numerous, highly unsafe accommodations for migrant workers in Qatar, as the flood water in his room came into contact with an exposed electrical cable, electrocuting him.

While watching the games, let us not forget the senseless loss of life, the families they have left behind and the mothers who will never see their boys return home.

Thank you, senators.