Six months before the World Cup, the silence of the players of the France team on the subject of human rights in Qatar is getting worse and worse.
Six months before the start of the World Cup, tension is mounting around the France team. And not only because of the complexity of the challenge facing the Blues: to be the first team since Brazil in 1962 to retain their world crown. The organization of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar has not finished making people cringe. The fault in particular with the question of the human rights and the conditions of the immigrant workers.
Read also: Qatar 2022: A serious problem for the Blues!
“You will become legendary if, as reigning world champions, you help us defend and support migrant people working in appalling conditions in Qatar, without whom this World Cup would never have been possible. Your talent is worth gold, your word must weigh just as much! »wrote Amnesty International in a letter addressed to the France team, the NGO adding: “In Qatar, you will probably come across these migrant workers in your hotel or when traveling between stadiums and other training places. These people are still today hundreds of thousands to be exploited by unscrupulous employers, without even having the right to protest against their conditions. In question, a retrograde organization of work, which sets up a virtual servitude of those who have come to work in Qatar. »
In the name of the Mondial 2022, thousands of migrant workers are exploited, worse dead.
For years, the @FIFA turn a blind eye to the largely predictable suffering of these people.
Although it is too late to erase them, a repair is possible. 👇
— Amnesty International France (@amnestyfrance) May 19, 2022
Denmark, an example to follow
And Amnesty International hopes to see the France team imitate Denmark, one of its opponents in the first round, which has decided to step up to denounce the working conditions of migrants. “Are you stronger than the Danes on the pitch? Be just as much in your claims! Get involved by clearly expressing your solidarity, by your public speech, in a message on your social networks or by signing our petition. It would be a gesture of justice for those who pay a high price for this competition to exist, continued the NGO. We ask only one thing of you, and that is to rise to the height of their esteem, by clearly expressing your solidarity with those who continue to live a nightmare.
It’s a very sensitive subject.
A request to which Didier Deschamps was invited to respond during his press conference on Thursday. “It is a very sensitive subject, it is not my role nor that of the players to put pressure on the Federation which has taken the necessary steps to be vigilant and attentive to the situation there. I don’t want to get into a media debate, that’s clear. This does not mean that each individual will have his freedom of expression. I don’t have the ins and outs. The FFF, the France team, like all nations, will do what is necessary to be vigilant about this situation. I’m not here to gag the players, they are free to express themselves on what they want. confided the tricolor coach, who knows how to walk on eggshells on this subject.
The federation must not be silent
An answer that should not satisfy the NGO. Invited to the microphone of After Foot on RMC, Lola Schulmann, advocacy officer at Amnesty France, deplored the refusal of the French Federation to engage on this issue. “The federation must not be silent and must speak out on the issue of rights violations in Qatar. The answer is that there will be no public speaking about it.she regretted, adding: “The Danes, Germans and Belgians are mobilizing. Our European colleagues and these federations talk about what we can do about our trips to Qatar, to be sure that everything is fine in our hotels. They are speaking out publicly on this subject.” “Talking about human rights should not be a taboo subject in France. You have to realize the impact of a word from Noël Le Graët”she added, hoping that the FFF will change its tune.
🗣💬 “The FFF has been asked to speak publicly on the issue of rights violations in Qatar. The answer? There will be no speaking out from the Fed on this subject”@Lola_Schulmann of Amnesty International on his meeting with Noël Le Graët. pic.twitter.com/6VXGIASfWp
— After Foot RMC (@AfterRMC) May 19, 2022