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THE horrific conditions of workers building the 2022 World Cup facilities in Qatar can be revealed today.

We secretly toured the camps where thousands of immigrant workers are living in misery, squalor and fear in the Gulf state.

Labourers building the stadiums, hotels, roads and hospitals in a £39billion development revealed how:

Healthy young men are dying from heart attacks and heat exhaustion working in temperatures topping 40C.

Their bosses have confiscated their passports to stop them fleeing the country

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Some workers building the World Cup stadiums are not even being paid.

One told us: “We are trapped in a nightmare. We are treated like animals, not human beings.”

Thanks to its natural gas reserves, Qatar is the richest country in the world per head of population.

It also enjoys a growing influence over world football with ownership of French giants Paris Saint-Germain and a lucrative sponsorship deal with Barcelona.

But while its 250,000 nationals enjoy a life of luxury, more than a million migrant workers from countries such as Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh are living like slaves in squalid camps.

We joined Labour MP Jim Murphy, the shadow international development secretary, on a fact-finding investigation organised by the International Trade Union Confederation.

According to the labour union, 1200 migrant workers have died since 2010, when Qatar controversially won the right to host the 2022 event. And they warn that as many as 4000 could die before a single ball is kicked in eight years’ time.

Murphy said: “As Qatar gears up to 2022, the abuse has to stop. Football cannot tolerate a World Cup built on the back of workers’ abuse, misery and blood.

“In my meetings with the people in charge of Qatar 2022, they made some big promises of change. After this investigation, it’s urgent that they deliver.

“As work begins on the stadiums, the international pressure has to be stepped up. Fifa must act and the SFA have to speak out.”

On Wednesday, the Qatari government insisted that the country’s workforce are treated “very well” and there has been “great improvement” in the conditions of workers in recent months. But that night, under cover of darkness, risking arrest and imprisonment, we visited camps to see first-hand the truth about the plight of the migrant workforce.

A half-hour drive from the gleaming city skyline of Doha, we found thousands of workers living in slum conditions.

We visited one camp, where more than 2000 men live.

There was an overpowering smell of excrement as we arrived. There were no Western-style toilets but holes in the floor. Others washed themselves using buckets of water. Salty water was used for drinking and washing.

Dirty water or sewage flowed under our feet. Staff cooked their meals on filthy, grimy grills and stoves, with no sign of fridges or freezers.

Workers slept in overcrowded accommodation, often 12 to each 4m by 4m room, separated by walls an inch thick and made of cheap wood.

We were forced to leave when the labour camp boss threatened to call the Qatari police. If caught, we risked being arrested and held in custody.

Conditions were no different at another camp. We have chosen not to identify it to protect the men who spoke to us.

Young men in football tops asked us the latest match scores as they had no TVs, radio or internet access.

But despite their love of the beautiful game, they can only dream of being able to afford to see football matches when the World Cup comes to Qatar.

One man working on a World Cup stadium said his employer had stopped paying him.

When he had been paid, he received £132 a month – the same amount as the cheapest ticket for international supporters to see the opening game of the World Cup in Brazil this summer.

We also heard from workers about the desperation of their situation.

They revealed how they had paid hundreds of pounds to secure jobs in Qatar through recruitment agencies.

But once they had got there, the companies they are working for confiscated their passports.

They were then sent to work in soaring temperatures topping 40C.

One workers’ rights campaigner told us that employees are more likely to die from heart attacks or heat stress than industrial accidents.

He said men as young as 25 were dying from heart attacks because of their working and living conditions.

But for many, there is no escape. Under Qatar’s kafala system, workers cannot change jobs or leave the country without their boss’s permission.

Some revealed that their employers had not paid them for months but they could not change jobs.

Many have not seen their families for years.

Murphy said: “Until now, this was the ugly secret of the beautiful game. If this abuse continues, this would be a World Cup that shames the history and romance of a tournament that has brought us the footballing genius of Puskas, Cruyff and Pele.”

Kamal, 32, Bangladesh

I had to pay a recruitment agency £3000 to come here. I was a stonemason in Bangladesh but now I lay road kerbs.

I should have been paid £149 a month but I am only paid £116 a month. However, it is more than I would have been paid at home.

Despite working here for eight years, I have no savings. Everything I earn, I send back home. It is 10 months since I was last home to see my wife and two children.

Work lasts from 6am till 5.30pm each day, which includes an unpaid lunch break of one-and-a-half hours. It takes 45 minutes by bus to get to the construction site. So when I come home, all I do is eat and sleep. I don’t have strength to do anything else.

Many more people will be coming here for jobs because of the construction work needed for the World Cup and I worry that they will be treated like me.

I have two teenage sons and hope they won’t have to come here for work. I want them to go to university and have a good standard of living. You don’t have any benefits here, only problems.

Kasun, 21, Sri Lanka

I have been working as an electrician’s helper for a sub-contractor on one of the stadiums being built for the World Cup.

I came here six months ago and earned £132 per month for working seven days a week.

But the company have not paid me for the past three months. My supervisor always says, “I’ll pay you tomorrow.”

I get food on credit from the supermarket but I need money to send home. I have three sisters and brothers at home and they need my support.

I am hopeful that I will be paid eventually.

Lahiru, 34, Sri Lanka

I was a supervisor on a building site, which employed 500 workers, and earned a good salary of £400 a month.

But then my employer disappeared and I haven’t been paid for six months.

The company closed and I simply do not know where my boss is.

Working for another employer would be breaking the law in Qatar.

Under Qatar’s kafala system, workers cannot change jobs or leave the country without their employer’s permission. But I cannot contact my employer. He never answers his mobile phone.

I have relatives here and they are helping me to survive.

I haven’t seen my wife or son for five years. My son is six now.

I keep telling myself I will be home the next month. The truth is that I don’t know when or how I will get home.

Sajith, 47, Sri Lanka

I have lost almost all of the sight in my left eye after a masonry nail went into it while I was working on a building site for apartments.

The company I work for did not give me safety glasses to protect my eyes.

It was only after I was almost blinded in one eye that workers were given safety glasses.

I have had two operations on my eye and may need another one.

The doctor told me to take three months off work to recover. I am paid £200 a month but I don’t get paid when I am off sick and I could only afford to take 15 days off.

I have worked here for two years and three months and haven’t been home.

It would be too upsetting for my family back home in Sri Lanka to hear about my injury. I can’t face telling them.

Being blind in one eye makes the job more difficult but I have to keep working.

I have no insurance so I didn’t receive any compensation.

Peter, 23, Kenya

Working here feels like being in a prison. I sleep in a 12ft-by-12ft room with five other men.

The beds are too small and the mattresses are so thin – about an inch thick – that it is difficult to sleep on them.

One of the other workers found a mattress lying outside that was filthy and covered in bedbugs. But he decided that it would be better to sleep on it because it was thicker than one of the thin mattresses.

I am a labourer and am helping to build a new hospital.

I have been given some protective clothing because there is a lot of dust but I haven’t been given a protective mask. I fear for my health.

We feel isolated because we don’t know what is happening in the outside world. We have no TV, radio or internet. We could buy a television but we send every penny we earn back to our families.

I paid a recruitment agency more than £500 to come here. I was told that I would earn £250 a month but I am only getting half that amount. My mother is alone in Kenya and I am the breadwinner. I feel betrayed.

I get an allowance of £33 a month for food but it is not enough to keep my strength up. I eat mostly rice and beans.

I can’t leave the country because my employer has my passport. It was taken from me when I arrived in Qatar. I only have a photocopy of my passport.

Please do something to help us.