A representative on Fifa's ruling executive committee has said he is appalled and disturbed by the findings of a Guardian investigation into the treatment of migrant workers in Qatar before the 2022 World Cup and vowed to push for immediate action by football's governing body.

Northern Ireland's Jim Boyce, a Fifa vice-president, called for an immediate investigation into the deaths of dozens of Nepalese workers and the ill-treatment of thousands of others working in Qatar in an £85bn construction frenzy as the country prepares to host the tournament.

"I was appalled and very disturbed after reading the allegations in the newspaper this morning. Fifa must investigate this information immediately and report the full findings at the earliest opportunity to the Fifa executive committee," he said.

Boyce, who reiterated that he was "absolutely appalled", took over from the former Football Association chairman Geoff Thompson as the representative of the home nations on the 24-strong Fifa executive committee immediately after the vote that controversially awarded the 2022 World Cup to Qatar in December 2010.

The executive committee is convening in Zurich next Thursday for a two-day meeting that will include a debate about the timing of the 2022 tournament. There is growing demand to move it from summer to winter in order to avoid the 50C heat, but this has outraged defeated rival bidders, such as the US and Australia, and European leagues that play in winter.

It is understood that discussion of the findings of the Guardian investigation, which included evidence of forced labour on the huge Lusail City project that will have the World Cup final stadium as its centrepiece, could be added to the agenda.

The Qatar 2022 supreme committee, responsible for the ambitious project to host the world's biggest sporting event in a country smaller than the Falkland Islands and in scorching summer temperatures, said it too was appalled by the details contained in the report and an accompanying film.

"Like everyone viewing the video and images, and reading the accompanying texts, we are appalled by the findings presented in the Guardian's report. There is no excuse for any worker in Qatar, or anywhere else, to be treated in this manner," said a spokesman.

"The health, safety, wellbeing and dignity of every worker that contributes to staging the 2022 Fifa World Cup is of the utmost importance to our committee and we are committed to ensuring that the event serves as a catalyst toward creating sustainable improvements to the lives of all workers in Qatar."

The World Cup organisers have promised to hold all contractors due to work on the construction of the actual stadiums to a new code of conduct.

But critics of a system that has been likened to modern-day slavery point out that Qatar already has more robust labour laws than many other countries in the region, but they are often not adhered to by the web of contractors and subcontractors in a huge construction boom with tens of thousands of migrant labourers who are tied to their employer by law.

Meanwhile, the British government has offered to assist Qatar and other hosts of large sporting events to share the lessons of ensuring the "safety and security" of the construction of the venues and infrastructure for the 2012 Olympics.

"London 2012 had an outstanding record on safety and security both during the construction phase and when the Games were on," said the sports minister, Hugh Robertson.

"We stand ready to help with lessons learned and share best practice with future host cities and countries of major international sporting events. It's also vital that international sports organisations remain vigilant and ensure that their selected hosts' safety and security plans are completely robust."

The International Trade Union Confederation this week wrote to the Fifa president, Sepp Blatter, to revisit the bid conditions for the 2022 World Cup to protect migrant workers.

It pointed out that in 2011 the Fifa secretary general, Jérôme Valcke, issued a statement in which he said: "Fifa upholds the respect for human rights and the application of international norms of behaviour as a principle and part of all our activities."

Tory MP Damian Collins, who has long campaigned for reform of Fifa, has said England and other nations should consider boycotting the World Cup if Fifa does not show it is taking concerns surrounding the Qatar tournament seriously.

He said Fifa should take a "very active interest" in preparations in Qatar, including "any construction work linked to the infrastructure and stadia".

In light of grave concerns about the treatment of migrant workers, and the debate about when the tournament should be played given the summer heat, he said football authorities should consider withdrawing from Fifa tournaments.

"I do wonder whether the FA should seriously consider whether the questions over it being moved, over human rights and over the huge disruption to the sporting calendar are so great that we should consider not playing," said Collins, who sought to form an international coalition of politicians to campaign for the reform of Fifa in the wake of corruption allegations that engulfed the organisation in 2011.

"Fifa only understands and respects money, so the only power the FAs have is to withhold from Fifa tournaments. If there are outstanding concerns over the calendar and human rights there should be a very serious debate about whether to play in the World Cup."

Collins said he was also concerned that the voice of Uefa, the European football governing body, was "not as strong as it should be" on the issue. Its president, Michel Platini, was one of those who voted for Qatar to host the 2022 tournament.

"These are serious issues. The Qataris have said they take this very seriously and so should we. Fifa should look like it is busting a gut to make sure it is protecting the rights of the workers who are providing the stage for its tournament," he said.

The English FA and Uefa declined to comment.

Fifa said it would contact the organisers in Qatar before addressing the issue at its next executive committee meeting in Zurich on Thursday and Friday next week.

"Fifa is very concerned about the reports presented by the media regarding labour rights abuses and the conditions for construction workers in projects at Lusail City, Qatar," it said in a statement.

A day in the life of a construction worker



The room KK sleeps in every night, which measures about three metres by four, would be small enough if he slept in it alone. In fact he shares it with 11 other men, and because of Qatar's searing temperatures, whenever they are not at work, the room is packed with bodies.

"The air conditioner doesn't even work properly," said KK, pointing to the rattling machine in the corner.

His room is part of a rundown compound filled with migrant workers from across the region. Next door is a room full of Sri Lankans on one side and on another a group of Egyptians. It is not what KK imagined when he left his home in Nepal to earn enough to feed his extended family.

He had been promised a job as a carpenter earning 1200 rials a month with 300 rials for food, but instead he was being paid just 900 rials and had been put to work as a plumber.

Every day KK gets up before dawn to go to work, but even at this hour the humidity is draining.

In order to pay the recruitment brokers to get this job in Qatar, KK had taken out a loan but that loan which gave him the freedom to leave Nepal, was now binding him to Qatar.

"I'm upset, but what can I do? I have so many expenses, I have a wife and a whole family to look after," he said. "I've got no choice, I have to stay here to pay off my debt."

At the end of an eight-hour shift, KK returns to his room dripping in sweat, but there are no bathrooms to wash in, just a bucket of water over an open latrine. And with the searing heat there is nothing to do but return to his cramped room.

"Those in Nepal who want to come here need to confirm everything in their contract before they leave," warned KK. "I confirmed everything but when I arrived here I found it hadn't been confirmed here. That recruitment broker had lied to me. This is the reality."

Pete Pattisson

Qatar in numbers

In 1980, Qatar was a country of 200,000 people, making it one of the smallest in the world, but it has changed rapidly, largely because of immigration.

Credit: Guardian graphics

In terms of rights, migrants might not be powerful – but they are great in number. Figures show the number of Qataris in work is 71,076, and there are 1,199,107 non-Qatari workers, so immigrants make up 94% of Qatar's workforce, and 70% of its total population.

The website Peoplemovin, which pulls together data from the World Bank, estimates that in 2011, 22% of migrants came from India, 22% from Pakistan, 16% from Nepal and 13% from Iran. Only a handful of those migrants make it into skilled jobs, the Qatari census data shows. The vast majority have moved into urban areas, reducing the percentage of the population in rural areas from 10.6% in 1980 to 4.2% now.

Credit: Guardian graphics

Most of those migrants are men, which goes some way to explain why three out of every four residents in Qatar are male. This has had a big effect on the age and gender of Qatar's population, as these classic population pyramids demonstrate. Qatar's demography was quite gender-balanced back in the 1950s. By 2010, there was a bulge in the number of 25- to 35-year-olds and far more men than women. Mona Chalabi