A union report has branded Qatar “a country without a conscience,” provoking anger from the local World Cup organising committee just ahead of a significant FIFA executive meeting in Zurich yesterday. The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) Case Against Qatar provides new evidence of abuses of international law and inhuman conditions for workers building stadiums and other infrastructure for the 2022 tournament.

Yesterday’s FIFA executive committee was called to receive the football governing body’s own investigation into labour rights in Qatar. The study was triggered after the ITUC estimated that as many as 4,000 workers could die before a ball is kicked.

During a recent visit to the Al Wakrah stadium, ITUC general secretary Sharon Burrows found 38 workers from India, Nepal and Thailand living in squalor with mattresses on the floor in makeshift rooms. Employees were being provided with salty water for cooking and washing, while employers demanded huge cash deposits before workers were allowed on holidays. ITUC said over 2,500 Indonesian maids flee from abusive sponsors each year.

Yet local authorities won't take responsibility, saying the workers are not covered by welfare standards established to combat international criticism of labour abuses in the country. FIFA’s local organising committee has also denied responsibility for the workers.

Ms Burrows said Qatar would respect international standards and abolish ‘kafala,’ the legal right for employers to withhold exit visas from migrant workers, if FIFA demanded it. The ITUC has written to FIFA and the Qatar authorities calling for freedom of association, the use of ethical recruitment companies, an end to the kafala system, a non-discriminatory minimum wage and robust compliance systems.