A group of young footballers are sitting together in a canteen, talking of “girls” and the game in the way young footballers do, when the conversation turns to something deeper.
“Let me just ask you, what do you imagine freedom to be,” one goes to the table. “Let me have a go,” another responds. “I think freedom means maybe not being under slavery but having access to everything, your movement, free expression.”
“So many immigrants are coming to Qatar to work in search of greener pastures, but maybe a couple of them are not finding this greener pasture. They are staying in Qatar against their will, not directly like you’re being enslaved here. But, it’s like, you can’t go back, so you just stay and work for maybe the small salary.”
Another interjects: “Modern slavery.” “You can call it that.”
The men go on to talk about how they miss just running on the beach, food from home, and even being able to go on a date.
As you can probably guess by now, this certainly isn’t the England players, or any other Nations League squad complaining about four fixtures in this international break. It is actually a scene from a superbly moving documentary called ‘The Workers Cup’, that should really be shown to every team going to Qatar in November. That’s all the more pressing as the England squad prevaricate on what to do next as regards human rights abuses, and Harry Kane talks this week about collective plans with captains from other nations.
That stance is actually someway understandable since one of the issues with so much general discussion about human rights in Qatar is that numbers and words only go so far. There is a point where they stop having impact.
The tragic beauty of Adam Sobel’s documentary, which is available on Amazon for a cheap rental fee, is that it cuts through all of that with images and emotion. It presents the true significance of all that coverage, and it would be very difficult for anyone to watch it and not be moved to do something – especially if you are going to be involved in the World Cup.
This is the thing with footballers, too. As the pandemic and so many England campaigns have shown, they are more than willing to help when they are presented with the true effect of social problems. It is why the FA should show Gareth Southgate’s squad this documentary.
The film covers a group of migrant workers for a company called GCCC in Qatar, who are allowed a rare opportunity to experience something like normal life by playing in a football tournament between different organisations.
That is all the more poignant for one of the main subjects of the documentary, 21-year-old Kenneth from Ghana, since he was given the impression by a recruiting agent that he would be transferred from the construction job he was signing up for to a professional football club when he got to Qatar.
There’s a line from another worker, Padam from Nepal, that sums up the situation for pretty much all of them here.
“When I discovered the reality it was too late.”
That reality, when spelled out, is genuinely like something out of a dystopian future. So many migrant workers were lured to Qatar under false pretences, where their desperation was exploited, only to then find themselves in circumstances that really resemble a prison camp.
The general details of this are now well rehearsed. They have to hand over passports. They are left in debt by exorbitant recruitment fees, ensuring the companies have almost total control of their lives. They can’t even leave the camp without permission from their superiors, which is so rare.
Southgate and Kane said England are working on a ‘collective standpoint’
One worker, Paul from Kenya, forlornly talks of wanting to go on a date with a woman he met on facebook.
The actual lived experience as shown in the film is even sadder, and one of many reasons it is worth watching the documentary. There are so many emotionally affecting vignettes that show how bleak it all is.
“With all this struggling, what’s the good of our lives anyway,” Paul says.
There’s then quite a description of Qatar, as the camera pans over the cityscape that has been given such prominence in glamorous World Cup promotions.
Two of the workers in the film, Calton (right) and Samuel (standing left)
The documentary is available on Amazon
