Official documents have reportedly revealed that 185 migrant workers from Nepal had died in 2013 during the building of the infrastructure for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar
The 2013 death toll, which is expected to rise as new cases come to light, is likely to spark fresh concern over the treatment of migrant workers in Qatar and increase the pressure on FIFA to force meaningful change
According to The Guardian, the documents mention that the total number of verified deaths among workers from Nepal - just one of several countries that supply hundreds of thousands of migrant workers to the Arab state- is now at least 382 in two years alone.
The report mentioned that 36 of those deaths were registered in the weeks following the global outcry after the Guardian's original revelations in September, which prompted Qatar's ministry of labour to conduct an urgent review to prevent the tournament from building 'on the blood of innocents'.
The Nepalese make up about a sixth of Qatar's two million-strong population of migrant workers and the report added that the Pravasi Nepali Co-ordination Committee (PNCC), which is working with the families of dead workers to repatriate their bodies and campaign for adequate compensation, has seen evidence to take the 2013 total to 193.
The PNCC called on FIFA's sponsors to reconsider their relationship with world football's governing body, which awarded the World Cup to Qatar in December 2010, and urged governments to demand that Qatar takes meaningful action to protect foreign workers on its soil, including reform of the kafala system of labour.