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15 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 30 NOVEMBER 2022 WORLD CUP 2022 increasing; since 2020 at least four people have been sen- tenced to death per year, as compared to one or two death sentences per year in previous years. What is more, for foreign na- tionals facing murder charg- es, the nationality of the vic- tim may be pertinent. As the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty and The Advo- cates for Human Rights have noted: "Recent history suggests that a migrant worker may be more likely to be sentenced to death and executed for killing a Qatari national, as opposed to a non-citizen", suggesting that some lives matter more than others. Meanwhile the UN notes sev- eral human rights concerns about the Qatari criminal jus- tice system. These include in- adequate access to legal coun- sel and legal assistance in a language that the defendant can understand (which is par- ticularly relevant to foreign nationals); restrictions on de- fendants' ability to address the courts; and the use of trials in absentia. Both the UN and Amnesty International reported claims by those under sentence of death in Qatar that their con- fessions were made under du- ress and torture and "in many cases, those raising allegations of torture were not Qatari na- tionals". The kafala system Since the 1950s the kafala sys- tem of migration emerged to facilitate short-term migration with no prospect of the migrant gaining citizenship. Under this system, a migrant worker must be sponsored by a Gulf national (who becomes their kafeel). A worker's legal status in the host country is depend- ent on their employment and relationship with their kafeel. This dependency makes un- skilled workers susceptible to harsh working and living con- ditions, high recruitment fees (that leave migrant workers in debt), passport confiscation (so they cannot leave), wages be- ing withheld, and the employer substituting their contract for one with less favourable con- ditions. Some migrant workers are more vulnerable than others – especially domestic workers who work in the unregulated domestic sphere, not covered by labour laws. Migrant work- ers are not able to join trade unions or strike. If they leave their employment without per- mission from their employer, or stay in the country past the duration of their temporary visa, they face fines, deten- tion, deportation and a ban on re-entry. These conditions place work- ers in a situation that is tanta- mount to forced labour. And indeed, the human rights NGO Reprieve notes that: The socioeconomic disad- vantage and generally abusive work environments endured by many migrant workers in Gulf and South East Asian states render them especially vulner- able to human trafficking and to facing the death penalty for crimes that arise out of their trafficking and exploitation. For foreign nationals sen- tenced to death for drug traf- ficking, our data suggest that the kafala system creates the conditions for drug trafficking, with many of those on death row across the region claiming to have been forced, tricked or coerced into ingesting capsules of drugs by the agents who ar- ranged their job in the Gulf. This concerning trend has been reported on elsewhere in the region, for example, a re- port by Human Rights Watch and Justice Project Pakistan suggested that labour recruit- ment agencies in Pakistan may be involved in drug trafficking, exposing Pakistani migrant workers to risks of incarcera- tion and execution. The report states: In several cases, detainees and family members alleged that men involved in the recruit- ing firms that sent Pakistanis to Saudi Arabia forced them to traffic drugs to Saudi Arabia. Wider Gulf findings The kafala system operates across the region, and plays a role in death penalty cases across the Gulf. Most of the other death penalty cases we found were in Saudi Arabia, where drug offences account for around 60% (221 cases out of 385) of all foreign national death sentences. In Saudi Ara- bia, drug trafficking accounts for the disproportionate num- ber of Pakistanis subject to capital punishment, with more Pakistani citizens executed an- nually than any other foreign nationality, most for heroin smuggling. We also found 130 foreign nationals under sentence of death or executed for homicide in Saudi Arabia during this pe- riod (which constitutes 34% of the total foreign nationals fac- ing the death penalty in this ju- risdiction for all crimes). These people were predominantly from Yemen, Pakistan, the Philippines and Egypt. The ma- jority (some 89%) were male. In the UAE, we found 114 for- eign nationals facing the death penalty for homicide. Many were from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, with 82% being male. Interestingly, we found at least 27 Indian males who had been sentenced to death following violent crimes re- lated to their bootlegging ac- tivities. We found 31 foreign nationals were sentenced to death for drug trafficking, from the following nationalities (in order of highest number): Pa- kistan, Iran, Afghanistan, In- dia, Oman and Saudi Arabia. Smaller numbers (less than 10 per category) of foreign nation- als were sentenced for other crimes such as child rape, rob- bery, adultery, terrorism and kidnapping. We found fewer cases in the remaining two jurisdictions. In Bahrain, we recorded 17 for- eign nationals on death row for homicide during this period from nations such as Bangla- desh, Nepal and the Philip- pines, all of whom were male. We also found one case of a foreign male from another Gulf state (exact nationality un- known) having been sentenced to death for drug trafficking, and one Nepali male national sentenced to death for rape. One illustrative case is that of a Filipino man, who, according to media reports, was convicted in Bahrain of killing a Pakistani national who had taken the Fil- ipino's passport as collateral for a loan he had made to him. The Filipino was looking for another job and he needed the passport so he could file an em- ployment application. He alleg- edly killed the Pakistani man in order to retrieve his passport and not have to repay the loan. Finally, in Kuwait we found 12 cases of foreign nationals subject to capital punishment from 2016 to 2021 for hom- icide (as compared to a total of 47 foreign nationals for all crimes). They came from plac- es such as Egypt, Ethiopia and the Philippines. Here, seven were male and five were female – this jurisdiction highlights the phenomenon of domestic workers facing the death pen- alty after acting in self-defence against their employer. Maids are also at times seen as con- venient scapegoats upon which to place blame for a murder committed by someone else. For example, the case of Ja- katia Pawa, who was executed in 2017 after being accused of killing her employer's daugh- ter, even though her DNA did not match that found at the scene. According to media re- ports, the judge refused to hear any testimony from the maid herself and the embassy were only told of her impending ex- ecution on the day it was car- ried out. With regards to other crimes: there are four drug trafficking cases in Kuwait; one case of the death penalty for political charges; and one further case of the death penalty for the of- fences of theft, kidnapping and rape. There are also 29 cases of foreign nationals in this ju- risdiction whose crimes are unknown. Taken together, all of these stories reveal the par- ticular difficulties that migrant workers across the Gulf face. Sportswashing Amnesty International coined the term "sportswashing" – referred to as states hosting high-profile sports events to try to obscure their poor hu- man rights records. Examples of this include Brazil hosting the football World Cup in 2014 and Russia hosting the same in 2018. Amnesty International launched campaigns in light of these events and has done so for the Qatar World Cup too. As the kick off to the World Cup approached, there were reports of workers being sacked after a circular was issued by the Qatari government urging companies to reduce the num- ber of migrant workers in the country before the games start- ed. In recent months, workers have been sent home in large numbers without being paid, with activists concerned this is to erase their presence before the world's media and specta- tors arrive. Some of those who protested the withholding of their salaries were arrested and deported, in pursuance of an order to police. As Acharya discovered: These workers are very un- happy that they worked a lot, they worked hard to make this tournament possible. But just a couple of months back, they were sent home and not in a good manner. They [the Qatari authorities] behaved like they were criminals and they were sent home. Fifa has maintained that it "is not aware of any policy at the host country" mandating work- ers to leave Qatar ahead of the World Cup and that it is "in touch with our counterparts" in Qatar and the International Labour Organisation to "look into specific cases where com- panies may have terminated contracts in an improper man- ner". Fifa says progress is being made on workers' rights and la- bour conditions in the country and that there also compensa- tion mechanisms in place. The current competition has produced heated discussions in football about potential boy- cotts owing to Qatar's poor hu- man rights record. Others are calling for some- thing visible at the tourna- ment itself. Acharya argues that people in Nepal are wait- ing for some recognition of the sacrifice that so many of their friends and families have made. They say "we could not get their lives back, but it would be good if they could recognise or honour the contribution of those workers". Arguably, protest action should also focus on this in- visible death row population of migrant workers, many of whom are victims of traffick- ing, labour abuse, torture in detention and ultimately, for some, wrongful conviction.

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