PE man's 'year of hell' in Qatar

Fifa stadium worker wrongly blamed for colleague's death

A Port Elizabeth contract worker has described his year of hell in Qatar after he was trapped in the Middle Eastern country for 11 months and left penniless after being wrongly blamed for the accidental death of a co-worker.

He is now considering a civil lawsuit. Graham Vance, 28, was working on high-rise catwalks for Qatar’s 2022 Fifa World Cup Khalifa stadium when a British construction worker with whom he was working fell 40m to his death after their equipment failed in January last year.

Qatar police arrested Vance the same day for the death of Zachary Cox, 40.

Vance said the months which followed were a nightmare.

Although he only spent one day in jail, Vance was, in effect, trapped in Qatar as he was forbidden to leave for the duration of the police investigation.

He was also unable to work as his work visa had expired and the contractor refused to renew it.

He faced a further day in jail when the court case finally took place late last year.

However, although the investigation eventually cleared him of any culpability and an internal company probe also exonerated him, this internal report was never submitted to the Qatar courts.

Vance believes he was made a scapegoat by the company and suffered unnecessarily due to this.

He said he was “trapped in hell”, with barely any assistance from the South African Embassy, and had spent all his savings defending and supporting himself.

Although he arrived on January 12 last year for a one-month job as a ropeaccess technician, the former Grey High School pupil was only able to return to his home in Glen Hurd in November.

During his legal travails in Qatar, he also lost a four-year contract in Australia as he was unable to leave to take up the job.

The accident happened on January 19 at the stadium construction site when one of the hoists holding up a section of the catwalk collapsed.

According to documents of the main contractor, Midmac/Six Construct Joint Venture (MSJV) – which have been seen by The Herald – a lever hoist attached to the catwalk failed, causing part of the platform to fall.

The other hoists managed to hold the weight, leaving the catwalk suspended.

However, Cox’s safety harness line snapped and he fell to his death.

Vance was arrested within hours and charged with Cox’s death. “I was devastated,” he said. “Imagine being arrested just after seeing a co-worker fall about 40m and die.

“I was talking to him minutes before he fell and even tried to grab the rope when it snapped.

“My hands were cut and bruised from trying to save him but the police did not care, they wanted to blame someone.

“I was isolated and the worst part is I could not leave the country. I was stuck there with no friends and barely anyone who could speak English.

“It was like being in solitary confinement – your life comes to a standstill.”

According to the MSJV incident investigation report dated January 30 2017, the cause of the accident was actually a series of system failures and human error.

“There were slips, lapses and mistakes made [by] individuals during the installations of the catwalk,” it said.

Vance was released pending a court date, on condition he did not leave the country.

He said he could also have died in the accident.

“I was on there two minutes before it collapsed. “It happened so quickly. “Even to this day, I still have flashbacks and nightmares.

“Fortunately, one of the subcontractors gave me a place to stay, otherwise I would have been homeless.

“A few weeks after the incident, there was a report compiled by a panel which exonerated me from any wrongdoing.

“For some reason, the report was never submitted to the court.

“From day one, the police interrogated me as if I was the one who caused this hoist to fail.

“I can still hear the jail doors slamming behind me – it was terrifying.”

Port Elizabeth lawyer Stuart Laubscher – a family friend – flew to Qatar to assist Vance.

“The first thing I questioned was why the report had not been submitted to the court,” Laubscher said.

“The [company-appointed] lawyer [for Vance] could not answer me.

“That just screamed that they were trying to pin it on him.

“After an exchange of words, she came to court the following day with a whole new strategy to get him off.”

Laubscher said he had consulted Cox’s sisters in the UK and was looking at a joint civil lawsuit.

Vance’s Qatar-based lawyer, Noora Haji, failed to respond to e-mails requesting comment.

Department of International Relations and Cooperation spokesman Nelson Kgwete said he was not aware of the incident but would consult colleagues to establish what embassy assistance had been provided to Vance.

Litany of labour concerns

Building work on the Qatar World Cup stadium has been dogged by allegations that its migrant workers are abused, with dozens of deaths due to poor or unsafe working conditions.

The Gulf state is spending about R2-trillion on new infrastructure, transport, housing and sports facilities during the build up to the 2022 Fifa World Cup.

However, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called for laws in the country to be changed, mainly to protect foreigners working in the construction industry.

Stadium contractors rely mostly on migrant workers from countries such as Bangladesh, India and Nepal.

Of the Qatar migrant labour force of nearly two million people, about 800 000 are employed in the construction sector.

In 2012, health authorities reported 520 deaths of workers from Bangladesh, India and Nepal. In 2016, the Qatari government told Human Rights Watch that 35 workers had died, mostly from falls, “presumably at construction sites”.

A report by Amnesty International in 2016 revealed that all 132 workers consulted had alleged human rights abuses.

Among the claims were that they were forced to live in filthy lodgings and pay high recruitment fees, their wages were withheld and passports confiscated.

Some of the workers compared their work in Qatar to being in prison.

Amnesty’s report found the vast majority of those interviewed alleged their passports were confiscated, some had been denied the right to leave Qatar, others had their wages paid three or four months in arrears and some workers had been threatened with non-payment or deportation.