A British daily has reported that thousands of North Korean construction workers in Qatar, the 2022 World Cup host, are being robbed of most of their earnings by the North Korean government.
 
The Guardian cited North Korean workers and defectors in an article on Friday, saying that the laborers may receive as little as ten percent of their salary during the three-years they generally work in Qatar. Instead, the majority goes to government officials and the remainder to the North’s ruling Korean Worker’s party.
 
With around two-thousand-800 North Korean guest workers registered in Qatar, the report said there were four sites in Lusail City, where the World Cup final match will be held, that use North Korean laborers. It added that the North Korean workers start in the morning and remain at the construction sites late into the night, long after other laborers are gone.
 
Aidan McQuade, the director of human rights group Anti-Slavery International, said the working conditions faced by North Korean workers in Qatar are “highly indicative of state-sponsored trafficking for forced labor," citing excessive overtime and withholding of wages.
 
A spokesperson from Qatar's ministry of labor and social affairs said there are no recorded complaints on matters related to the workers' compensation or treatment, adding that the government is continuously trying to improve working conditions for workers of all nationalities.
 
North Korean defector organizations estimate that around 65,000 North Koreans are working abroad, mainly in Russia, China, Mongolia and the Middle East.