Amnesty International on May 21 published a report, "Promising little, delivering less: Qatar and migrant labor abuse ahead of the 2022 Football World Cup," which claims that few of the reforms promised to address the exploitation of migrant workers have been put into place.

amnesty"Qatar is failing migrant workers," said AI researcher Mustafa Qadri. The NGO's report included a "scorecard" to rate the Qatari government's response to nine human rights issues. It found only limited progress in five categories and no improvements in the remaining four.

"The lack of a clear roadmap of targets and benchmarks for reform leaves serious doubts about Qatar's commitment to tackling labor abuse," said Qadri. "Without prompt action, the pledges Qatar made last year are at serious risk of being dismissed as a mere PR stunt to ensure the Gulf state can cling on to the 2022 World Cup."

FIFA, governing body of world soccer, will elect a new president next week. Qadri noted that FIFA has spent time, money and political capital investigating alleged corruption in the Russia and Qatar World Cup bids and agonized over the scheduling of the tournament.

AI believes FIFA must work closely with Qatar World Cup organizing committee and corporate sponsors "to prevent abuses linked to the staging of the tournament.

Many of Qatar's 1.5M migrant workers are involved in construction of World Cup facilities.

Levick and Qatar's DC embassy inked a six-month contract Jan. 1 worth $88,500 monthly to handle "communications issues pertaining to US-Qatari cooperation."

Britain's Portland Communications arranged the early May BBC press tour of migrant housing in Qatar that resulted in the arrest and detention of the journalists.