German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel called on Tuesday for better conditions for those constructing the sites for the 2022 Football World Cup in Qatar, but he said that people should also treat the Gulf emirate fairly.
"We know there were considerable violations in the past," Gabriel, who is also German's economy minister, said during a visit to a major construction site in the Qatari capital Doha.
However, he said the West should acknowledge that Qatar had greatly improved the conditions for the mostly foreign construction workers following pressure from trade unions and the International Labour Organization, an agency of the United Nations.
One of the biggest problems for Qatar to solve was the sponsor system for foreign workers, in which workers pay large fees to employers to secure a job and then have their passports taken off them as security.
Gabriel pointed out this was the case across the Gulf region and that one had to consider where Qatar came from. "It is a country ... that although it is very rich, it is still at the level of a developing country and therefore has no experience at all with labour law," Gabriel said.
The site that Gabriel visited Tuesday will become a new city district and will include the stadium that will host the opening event for the World Cup in 2022.
