Ten days before the opening match of the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, a few hours before the televised reveal of the list of players from the France team called up to play in the tournament, a subsidiary of the French construction group Vinci has was indicted on Wednesday, November 9, as part of a judicial investigation into the working conditions of employees on construction sites linked to the event.
Three heads of indictment are targeting Vinci Construction Grand Projets (VCGP), present on Qatari construction sites since 2007: the “subjection to working or living conditions incompatible with dignity”, “obtaining the provision of services to a person in a situation of vulnerability or dependence, with unrelated compensation” and “reduction in servitude » for alleged acts between 2011 and 2014, indicated to the World the public prosecutor’s office of Nanterre, at the origin of the decision.
This long-term file has been chaotic. From 2015, when the emirate is a vast construction site of concrete and sand, a first complaint from Sherpa had targeted the construction group, before being dismissed in 2018. The investigation will be reopened in November 2019 at the following complaints with civil action from the Sherpa and Committee against Modern Slavery (CCEM) associations, alongside twelve former employees of these sites, from India, Nepal and Bangladesh.
“We can welcome this indictment on the grounds adopted. This is a very strong signal for these multinationals which can take advantage of modern slavery. This is the first time that a major French CAC 40 group has been indicted on these grounds. rejoices Sandra Cossart, director of the NGO Sherpa.
Three sites in the sights of the complainants
This dossier illustrates the excesses of the emirate’s major works policy, with massive recourse to migrant workers employed in precarious conditions, both material and legal. Investigations on this issue – including that of the British daily The Guardian, estimating in 2021 the number of deaths at 6,500 on construction sites – feed the debates on the boycott of the competition, at a time when the national selections are preparing to refine their tactics.
In the viewfinder of the complainants are three sites. First, that of the tramway linking Doha, the capital, to the new town of Lusail, which will host the inaugural match and the final of the Football World Cup in its 80,000-seat stadium, all in roundness and gilding. Then those of the underground car parks of Lusail. And finally the site of the landscaped parks and car parks of the Sheraton hotel, located in the center of Doha, a luxury establishment that will fill up during the event.
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