LOS ALAMITOS, CA – Lights blare down on millions of fans. Cheers deafen the players as they walk out onto the field. The event: The 2022 FIFA world cup. The location: Aljanoub Stadium in Al Wakrah, Qatar. Millions have traveled thousands of miles from all over the world to witness the famous quadrennial soccer event. The crowd thinks it is sitting in a lavish stadium of astounding proportions, and in some ways they are, if you consider the bloodshed of thousands of migrant workers the same level of astonishing as the stadiums they perished under during construction.

Qatar has been under fire over the course of the past month over their treatment of the South Asian migrant workers who were hired to build the eight unique stadiums for the 2022 World Cup. The grueling hours, low wages, and exhausting heat were only a few of the conditions that plagued migrant workers who moved to Qatar seeking opportunities that they could not find in their home countries. Thousands of impoverished South Asians worked for twelve years on the stadiums in order to make enough money to support their families.

After questionable deaths were reported during the construction of the World Cup stadiums, several human rights organizations conducted investigations after demands from hundreds of former workers and families of deceased workers, some of them are demanding justice. One major investigation from The Guardian that took place last year uncovered that there have been over 6,500 deaths over the course of the twelve year stadium construction period that can be attributed to the preparation of the World Cup stadiums in some way. In addition, Qatari officials were revealed to have lied on several of their workers’ death certificates in order to avoid giving the workers’ families compensation.

In a TalkTV interview that aired Monday, Nov. 28, Hassan Al-Thawadi, the World Cup Chief, denied the investigation’s claim of over 6,500 deaths, stating that only three workers died due to direct work-related incidents. He then followed up by saying that there were 37 additional worker deaths that were attributed to causes not related to the construction of the stadiums and 400 to 500 workers who perished in the wider efforts to prepare the stadiums for the World Cup. However, the Guardian continues to push forward evidence that the true figure is much closer to their 6,500 death claim than it is to Al-Thawadi’s 500 death claim through graphs and statistics.

In addition to reporting the amount of deaths that they uncovered in their investigation, The Guardian investigation also uncovered that most Indian and Nepali worker deaths in Qatar were reported as “natural deaths” rather than workplace accidents.

However, the Guardian’s investigation claims that a majority of the migrant worker deaths can be attributed to harsh working conditions rather than the “natural deaths” seen on their death certificates. Employees were forced to work in weather as hot as 124℉ and were threatened with salary cuts when they requested breaks. Because of this, several employees passed due to heat exhaustion. Additionally, other workers died due to work related accidents such as company bus crashes and construction accidents.

Although there is startling evidence of Qatar’s mistreatment of their migrant workers, especially in relation to the World Cup, Al-Thawadi has made claims that although the working conditions were not ideal, the experience was important for reform to take place in Qatar.

“What the World Cup did was it allowed for a significant number of reforms to be accelerated,” Al-Thwadi said at a think tank conference. “We always had laws and legislations that were in line with international standards. Yet the enforcement mechanisms—the oversight—was not to the standards that we were proud of.”

Most workers were recruited through the kafala system, a sponsorship program that brings migrants to Qatar under an employer. However, the employer has control over the migrant’s legal status in Qatar. Because of this, workers who quit their jobs or change employers are criminalized by the legal system. Employers also have the right to confiscate their employee’s passport under the kafala system. Anish Adhikari, a Nepal Native who worked on the world cup stadium for 33 months, feels that he was misled when he was hired to work in Qatar through the kafala system.

“The recruitment company knows everything about the condition of migrant workers in Qatar. But they lie. They only focus on profits for themselves,” Adhikari said in an interview with NPR news. “They sell a dream that’s not reality.”

Because of the mistreatment and wage theft that workers experienced, families of the deceased and former employees are demanding compensation and answers. Several families are still unsure of the true cause of their loved ones’ deaths due to receiving vague explanations from Qatari officials.

Ramulu Maraveni, an Indian migrant who worked on the roads surrounding the World Cup stadium, reportedly passed away due to heart failure from natural causes. His wife shared in an interview with the Washington Post that he had been working hard in order to provide for their family.

“It was hard and continuous, but he continued to work for our children’s future,” Lavnya Maraveni, Maraveni’s wife, explained to the Washington Post.

The situation in Qatar has drawn investigation and scrutiny from several news networks and human rights organizations. As the World Cup rages on, families continue to demand answers and workers continue to beg for compensation for the harsh conditions they endured.