In September 2013, the Guardian released a report on labor in Qatar that added another black mark to the tiny peninsular Gulf monarchy’s hosting of the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Its successful bid had already drawn accusations of vote-buying. The strict Wahhabi morality enforced in the country underlay concerns about the probable treatment of women and LGBT soccer fans, in addition to more prosaic worries — that the unbearable daytime heat in Qatar would likely interfere with the games.

Now Qatar could add slave labor to the heap.

The Guardian reported that workers constructing the Cup facilities worked and lived under conditions that fit the International Labor Organization’s definition of slavery: long hours as well as strenuous and unsafe activities resulted in daily worker deaths. Dilapidated and cramped living facilities were piled on top of a labor regime that insisted on the confiscation of workers’ visas and passports, trapping them in the country even as promised advances and high salaries were delayed or reneged upon.