FIFA human rights panel warns over migrant workers

FIFA's human rights advisors on Thursday criticised a lack of transparency over the condition of workers on Soccer World Cup projects in Russia, highlighting the plight of North Koreans reportedly building facilities.

In its first report, FIFA's newly-branded Human Rights Advisory Board issued a warning over “significant risks to workers' rights in the final phases of the construction in Russia”.

FIFA admitted in May that it had evidence that North Koreans were working on venue construction in St. Petersburg.

The revelations raised alarm as Stalinist North Korea is known to export workers to projects where slave-like conditions are enforced.

However, the extent of the problem in Russia remains difficult to assess, the rights panel said, noting that the “monitoring systems” set up by FIFA and the organising committee had been undermined by weak transparency.

“The level of information that is made publicly and regularly available about the functioning of these labour rights monitoring systems is markedly different, with very little currently published in relation to Russia,” the report said.

The eight-member board underscored that it wanted more information concerning “North Korean workers that could be connected to 2018 FIFA World Cup construction sites.”

Allegedly abusive conditions facing migrant workers in World Cup 2022 host Qatar have also triggered criticism of FIFA.