Nepalis Feel the Human Toll of Qatar’s World Cup

Twenty-four-year old Tej Narayan Tharu dreamt of buying a small plot of land and building a concrete house using his earnings as a scaffolder in a football stadium being built for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022. Born to a poor landless family of peasants in Morang, in Nepal’s eastern lowland bordering India, Tharu did not want his 4-year-old daughter to grow up in a mud hut or cut short her education due to financial problems like he did.

Tharu died long before he could see his dreams turn into a reality, using the “blood money” that Qatar paid his family as compensation.

Tharu’s family now lives in a cement building and owns a small plot of agricultural land where they grow paddy and corn. Samiksha, his daughter, studies in a private school. Renuka Chaudhary, Tharu’s wife, has cleared off the debt acquired during Tharu’s visa processing.

Qatar paid the family around 200,000 Qatari riyals (around $55,000) after Tharu fell to his death while working at Al Wakrah stadium (now Al Janoub Stadium) in 2018, legal documents show. The death report cites “Multiple Trauma Fall from height” as the cause of death.

“We now have a cemented roof above our head, but nothing will be enough to reimburse what we have lost. All these things are meaningless without him,” said Chaudhary.