Stonemasons Ojor and Raju take their lunch break sitting on a pavement near the smart central Doha complex they have helped build as Qatar prepares to host the 2022 World Cup in exactly four years’ time.
“I made a mistake coming here,” says Ojor, 22, from Nepal. “I took so much money from the bank (to pay recruitment fees), I don’t have anything in my hand.”
Both men have been working on the project for the past three years and earn the monthly minimum wage of 750 Qatari riyals ($205).
Raju, a 39-year-old Bangladeshi dressed in the blue overalls that have become ubiquitous in the gas-rich emirate, smiles gently as he talks about his contract finishing in a few months.