Meet the Migrant Workers Building Qatar's World Cup Stadiums

In the opening scene of the documentary The Workers Cup, migrant laborers from Asia, Africa, and the Middle East emerge, weary, in the pre-dawn to board a bus for work. The vehicle barrels down a dusty road until it comes upon a vast, lit-up construction site. The men have come to Qatar’s capital city of Doha to build the arenas and other infrastructure needed for the World Cup, which the Persian Gulf country will host in 2022. (That is, unless its recent political woes interfere.)

More than 1.5 million migrant workers live in Qatar, and they make up an incredible 60 percent of the population. When they arrive from their home countries, their residency permits are controlled by the company they work for. They cannot change jobs, quit, or leave Qatar without the company’s permission. They live in crowded, coarsely built shelters in vast camps located west of Doha. Except for Fridays, their days consist of 12 or more hours of intense labor (though they often work on Fridays, too). “All you think about is to get up, go to work, come back and rest,” Kenneth, from Ghana, says. “This is no life, man,” says Paul, from Kenya. “It’s like you are trapped or something.”