Vinci unit to face French judge on 9 November over labour conditions in Qatar

Migrant labourers work at a construction site at Aspire Zone in Doha, Qatar, 26 March 2016 [REUTERS/Naseem Zeitoon]

French construction group, Vinci, said on Monday one of its units will face an investigating judge in Paris on Wednesday to answer charges that it violated the rights of migrant workers helping to build stadiums for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, Reuters reports.

Vinci has repeatedly denied the claims by Paris-based human rights group, Sherpa, which, in 2015, filed a complaint in a court in Nanterre, a suburb of Paris, against Vinci’s Construction Grand Projets division and the managers of its 49 per cent-owned Qatari unit, QDVC, for “forced labour” and “keeping people in servitude”.

That complaint was dismissed in January 2018, but the same year Sherpa lodged a fresh complaint against the company with new witness statements on alleged abuses.

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Vinci said in a statement on Monday that it was “extremely regrettable” that, despite the proceedings having started seven years ago, its subsidiary should face charges just before the start of the Football World Cup in Qatar.

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“None of the projects awarded to QDVC has any connection with the 2022 Football World Cup in Qatar. In fact, these projects were entrusted to QDVC before the competition was awarded to Qatar and mainly relate to transport infrastructures,” it said.

“Vinci did not sign any contract with the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, and has not built any stadium or hotel in Qatar,” it added.

It said it would continue to cooperate with the courts “with the objective to show that the allegations made against the group are unfair”.

Vinci shares were down 2 per cent, at 93.99 Euros by 0759 GMT.

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