FIFA president Sepp Blatter says it is not his organization's responsibility to ensure the welfare of laborers constructing facilities for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

Speaking in Sri Lanka, Blatter said the companies that employ the laborers "are responsible for their workers and not FIFA," according to The Guardian.

Qatar has been accused of human rights violations in connection with its World Cup preparations. The country's government admitted in May that nearly 1,000 migrant workers from Nepal, India and Bangladesh died in 2012 and 2013. A May report from ESPN detailed the deplorable working conditions the laborers face.

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North Korean laborers in Qatar were part of a system of "state-sponsored slavery," a November report from The Guardian found.

More than 4,000 migrant workers are projected to die by time the first game is played in 2022, The Guardian reported in 2013.

While FIFA has investigated Qatar's World Cup bid, formal inquiries have concerned alleged bribery during the bid process rather than mistreatment of migrant workers.

Last month, FIFA judge Hans-Joachim Eckert cleared Qatar, saying any wrongdoing during the bid process was too minor to trigger the revoking of the Gulf state's hosting rights.

Sony also recently reportedly ended its sponsorship of the World Cup due to corruption concerns over the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 tournaments.

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- Dan Gartland