(by Vani Saraswathi for migrant-rights.org - Vani is an Indian journalist living and working in Qatar for the last 16 years.)

The recent Washington Post article and accompanying infographic has gone viral. Like most things on the internet, no one is really concerned about the veracity of content.

Hence, the few people pointing out that these statistics are grossly misrepresented go unheard. Nor has Qatar bothered to issue a rebuttal. Because it’s not blame-free.

Here’s why the latest article is unfair. That infographic compared all expatriate deaths since 2011 in Qatar to deaths at previous world cup venues.

Yes, over a 1000 Asian expatriates have died in Qatar since 2011. Many due to poor living and working conditions.

As yet, none on actual worksites of the world cup stadiums. This does not absolve Qatar of its responsibility and continuing reluctance to clean up its act.

However, this piece is not about deaths. It’s about the rather cantankerous attack on Qatar.

When Qatar won the bid to host the football world cup in 2022, human rights activists rightly saw it as opportunity to draw attention to the exploitation faced by the hundreds of thousands of migrant workers in the country. 

The plan then was to highlight the issue, influence Qatar to both accept the problems and find solutions for it, and host the world cup in fair environment. It was a golden chance for the country to rectify its labour environment, to innovate and host the most important important sporting event in the world.