An activist group has erected protest billboards in FIFA boss Gianni Infantino's Swiss home town of Brig to demand the world soccer body compensate migrant workers for alleged human rights abuses in Qatar, venue for the Football World Cup.
The mobile billboards carry the messages "Infantino: your family were migrants", "Thousands like them were victims of this World Cup" and "Compensate them now".
The protest by the Avaaz campaign group includes an Infantino impersonator holding a World Cup trophy.
Qatar, where foreigners make up most of the 2.9 million population, has faced intense criticism from human rights groups over its treatment of migrant workers.
FIFA has no direct comment on the protest, but points to comments by Infantino last month, hailing a fund that Qatar set up in 2018 that has paid out $350 million to workers in cases mainly linked to late or non-payment of wages.
Britain's Guardian newspaper reported last year that at least 6500 migrant workers - many of them working on World Cup projects - had died in Qatar, since it won the right to stage the World Cup in 2010.
The International Labour Organisation has questioned that number, claiming includes all deaths in the migrant population. Qatari World Cup organisers have said there have been three work-related fatalities and 34 non-work-related deaths among workers at World Cup 2022 sites.
Amnesty and other rights groups have led calls for FIFA to compensate migrant workers in Qatar for human rights abuses by setting aside $440 million, matching the World Cup prize money.
FIFA says it is assessing Amnesty's proposal and implementing an "unprecedented due-diligence process in relation to the protection of workers involved".
Last month, the European Union parliament approved a resolution that called on FIFA to help compensate the families of migrant workers who died, as well as workers who suffered rights abuses during preparations for the World Cup.
Reuters
