Migrant labourers working outdoors in Qatar face “high” or “extreme” risk of heat stress for more than half the working day during the four hottest months of the year, according to a UN report. The findings come just weeks after the Guardian revealed that hundreds of workers may be dying due to exposure to Qatar’s intense summer heat.

Last week Human Rights Watch called on Qatar to “urgently investigate and publicise the underlying causes of migrant worker deaths”. The UN report, which was jointly commissioned by the Qatari authorities and the International Labour Organisation (ILO), is based on data from monitoring 125 workers at two sites: a World Cup stadium and a farm.

The research found that a third of workers in the study experienced hyperthermia at some time during their shift; a serious health hazard where the body’s core temperature rises above 38C (100F). Nicholas McGeehan, a director of Fair/Square Projects, an organisation that conducts research on Gulf migrant workers, said the report was “a damning indictment of Qatar’s failure to protect outdoor workers”.

McGeehan said that despite the report’s conclusions the ILO had played down the findings and had failed to demand urgent reforms from the Qatari authorities.(The Guardian)…[+]