The Washington Post published, and many well-intentioned people circulated, an infographic asserting that more than 1,000 migrant workers have already lost their lives in Qatar from the building of the World Cup and that more than 4,000 are on track to perish by the time the project ends. How dodgy are those numbers, generated by the International Trade Union Confederation and amplified into an influential graphic by WonkBlog’s Christopher Ingraham? “More than 500,000 Indians live in the country. …. ITUC seems to have presumed that any Indian who dies in Qatar has lost his or her life because of the World Cup.” The problems with the numbers go on from there. “Qatar has a terrible human rights record and often treats workers like slaves. But imprecise arguments and exaggerated numbers do not help.” [Rohan Venkataramakrishnan, Scroll.in]
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