Migrant workers in Qatar left in debt after being ordered home before World Cup starts

Thousands of poorly paid migrant workers in Qatar are being forced to return home before the World Cup, leaving many fearing they will be left jobless, unable to support their families and deep in debt.

In some cases, workers say they have been sent back before the end of their contracts or without receiving their full salary or allowances.

The moves to send migrant workers back to their home countries before the beginning of the Fifa tournament appears to be linked to a government circular, published last year and seen by the Guardian, which ordered some contractors to complete all works by mid-September and prepare a plan for workers’ leave that “maximises the reduction in the number of workers in the country” in the run-up to the World Cup.

On the sweeping promenade that skirts the bay in Doha, a red clock in the shape of Qatar’s World Cup logo counts down the days until the tournament begins.

When the Guardian visited in the summer,hundreds of migrant workers dressed in blue overalls were working in the stifling humidityto complete a revamp of a popular walkway and the road alongside it, known as the Corniche, which is expected to be a destination for thousands of tourists and football fans once the tournament begins.

The Guardian interviewed 25 labourers employed on the Corniche. Most said they had expected to be in Qatar for two years but were being sent home far sooner – in some cases after just 10 months. Many of those interviewed have now returned to their own countries.

Some workers who spoke to the Guardiansaid they had not been working long enough to repay the huge sums – equivalent to four or five months’ basic salary in Qatar – that they borrowed to pay recruitment agents in their home countries to secure