In Doha, it will be the base camp of the France team. The French Football Federation has privatized the 150 rooms of this luxurious five-star for the duration of the World Cup. Outside the Al Messila hotel, the Blues can enjoy a magnificent swimming pool while sipping a cocktail. Kylian Mbappé and his teammates will walk through manicured gardens. Maintenance staff, gardeners, drivers… Everywhere, the journalist from “Complément d’Enquête”, who films with a hidden camera, came across these migrant workers who are working to make sure everything is perfect.
What is their salary? In what conditions do they live? Impossible to ask them these questions without attracting the attention of managers. On the uniform of the security guard, the journalist spots the name of the subcontractor who employs him: United Security Services. Are the agents guarding the entrance to the Hôtel des Bleus housed in conditions that meet the standards set by Qatar? The monarchy has communicated extensively on the demanding reforms carried out in this area, but what is it really?
Deprivation of rest days, retention of passports…
The journalist Pierre-Stéphane Fort goes on the spot, in the heart of the industrial zone of Doha. He is accompanied by the whistleblower who guided him throughout his investigation in the Qatari capital. In order not to attract attention (it is forbidden to film in the industrial zone), he dressed as a technician from a telephone company.
In the garbage-strewn parking lot, a minibus bearing the United Security Services logo confirms that they are in the right place. Inside the building, the toilets are dirty, while the employer is supposed to maintain the premises. Four employees crowd into a small room; Qatar however requires, in theory, 6 square meters per person. Some of the workers who live here claim to be deprived of rest days, and to have had their passports confiscated by their employer. Indecent living and working conditions, very far from the promises of the leaders of the French Football Federation.
Faced with these images two months after this shooting, President Noël Le Graët seemed to minimize the situation. The leader of the FFF, however, ended up finding the living conditions of the security guards in his hotel problematic. The journalist recently received a letter from the federation, informing him that after an investigation, the subcontractor United Security Services had been dismissed.
Excerpt from “Qatar 2022: a French scandal?”, a document to see in “Complément d’Enquête” on October 13, 2022.
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