An interesting thread on The Guardian reporting of migrant worker deaths in Qatar from disinformation expert @marcowenjones. I've been working on migrant worker deaths in Qatar and the Gulf since 2016, currently working on my fourth report on the issue. A 🧵 on a 🧵
https://twitter.com/marcowenjones/status/1581212669637369858
2/ Marc's point is that the headline of the article was designed to create the false impression that 6500 migrant workers died building the stadiums for the Qatar 2022 World Cup. This false narrative certainly took hold, and Marc provides the evidence to show its spread.
3/ But I disagree with Marc's argument. Yes, there has been a disinformation campaign on migrant worker deaths, but it has been from the Qatar authorities. There is critical context missing from Marc's analysis. For a start, this was a valid and important news story.
4/ Why? Three reasons. 1) Qatar was bringing in vast numbers of workers to furnish a massive construction boom driven by the World Cup. 2) There was strong evidence showing the health of these workers was at risk 3) Qatar was refusing to release data on the issue.
5/ Qatar's population in 2010 (when they won right to host WC) was about 1.7 million. Today it's about 2.9 million. Highest rate of net migration globally (I believe) largely due to need for workers to overhaul the country's infrastructure. How much was WC-related?
6/ It's not possible to say precisely but to a significant extents Qatar/Doha's rapid growth was driven and catalysed by the World Cup. See this excellent analysis from Amnesty in their May 2022 report. 
7/ So Qatar was not just like any other country. It did have a construction boom that was being driven by the World Cup. Qatar also knew that there was a serious problem with migrant worker deaths, their own consultants flagged this to them in a 2014 report by DLA Piper.
8/ Qatar buried this report but it's available here engineersagainstpoverty.org/wp-content/upl… and one key finding related to Qatar's failures to properly collect and disseminate date on worker deaths
9/ In 2017, I authored a report for @hrw The report highlighted the woeful lack of protection from heat, unacceptably high rate of unexplained migrant worker deaths and called on Qatar to release proper data hrw.org/news/2017/09/2…
10/ In October 2019, The Guardian published a lengthy piece, based on a peer-reviewed that for first time drew causal link between environmental conditions and migrant worker deaths in Qatar theguardian.com/global-develop…
11/ They published a similarly detailed piece on the UAE the following day. theguardian.com/global-develop…
12/ Marc says The Guardian headline was "was sensationalist precisely because it wished to invoke such misinterpretations. Otherwise, why publish the figure?" It was a response to long-standing concerns, including lack of data, on an issue where Qatar had been grossly negligent
13/ Marc rightly points out it is not an excess death figure, but doesn't explain why we don't have those figures? Why don't we? Because Qatar is still sitting on the data that would actually allow us to analyse this properly.
14/ See this August 2021 report from Amnesty for a very full and detailed explanation of the problem and Qatar's failures on data, as well as its systematic failure to prevent foreseeable risks to workers' lives amnesty.org/en/documents/m…
15/ So while I don't think The Guardian should have led with the number of deaths but rather the high rate of unexplained deaths, and the article should have clarified that Qatar had been refusing to release data, it's a good piece of work that filled a critical knowledge gap.
16/ The real disinformation campaign has come from Qatar, which is saying that 3 migrant workers have died in construction of WC. This has been coordinated attempt to mislead, perpetuated by Qatari authorities and supported by FIFA. Here just one of many many examples.
17/ This disinformation is being used by FIFA as part of its justification for refusing to support calls for compensation for predictable and preventable loss of lives and livelihoods in course of construction of Qatar 2022. amnesty.org/en/documents/m…
18/ So Marc's thread is useful and interesting but lacks critical context and ignores the fact that there is an actual disinformation campaign going on. Qatar is withholding the information we need, while pumping out false and misleading information.
19/ For the full facts on migrant worker deaths in Qatar see this report by Amnesty (re-posted earlier). Has full facts on deaths, data and investigations, and concludes Qatar violated the right to life of its migrant workforce. Which is the real point. amnesty.org/en/documents/m…
20/ For the full facts on migrant worker deaths in the Gulf as a whole see this report by @fairsqprojects @rmmru @JusticeProject_ @lapsoj2020 CMA Philippines fairsq.org/wp-content/upl…
21/ Marc's excellent book on disinformation also worth a shout hurstpublishers.com/book/digital-a…
22/ And a final point re: Qatar, which can't be made strongly or often enough. To borrow @cfahey_ 's line (again) don't throw a house party if you don't want people looking about your kitchen.
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