An investigation by The Guardian recently revealed shocking levels of mistreatment of Nepalese construction workers by their Qatari employers. In addition to denying workers water and wages, some companies have taken their ID cards and prevented them from fleeing. Forty-four Nepalese workers died this summer, their deaths suspiciously attributed to “heart failure.” About 80 workers at one of Qatar’s most prestigious development projects have not been paid in 18 months, and they are starving. The dormitories in which South Asian laborers are housed are squalid and unhygienic, often packed with a dozen workers per room.

The abuse is not limited to Qatar; migrant workers face similarly horrid conditions in Saudi Arabia. Last month, a video surfaced that appeared to show a worker being violently mistreated by a Saudi man. Saudi human rights groups decried the brutish behavior, and the authorities promised to investigate, but nothing has happened. Unfortunately, none of this is an aberration for the gulf region, where attitudes toward brown-skinned laborers are overwhelmingly discriminatory, and workers have no legal protection.

Qatar’s enslavement of migrant workers is deeply embedded. Under the kafala system of company-sponsored labor, employers have legal responsibility for their workers. In theory, this should ensure protection from unfair treatment: Laborers cannot legally work more than eight hours a day (and five consecutive hours without a break). In reality, however, companies routinely ignore the law, confiscate passports and withhold wages.

Workers often sign one contract before boarding a plane to Doha, only to have it ripped up before their eyes as they are handed a second contract with big reductions in wages. Sponsoring companies must give their employees permission to move or leave the country. In practice, thousands of migrant workers — lacking education, often deep in debt, and with no recourse to justice — become their bosses’ de facto property.

While FIFA has been conspicuously mute about the mistreatment of workers in Qatar, only recently calling the emirate’s labor practices “unacceptable,” other influential bodies have spoken out. The European Parliament passed a resolution demanding that FIFA “send a clear and strong message to Qatar” that the 2022 World Cup should not be “delivered by the assistance of modern slavery.” FIFPro, the 50,000-member international players’ union, has stated that it is “deeply alarmed” by reports of workplace brutality in Qatar and has demanded that FIFA act.