NEW DELHI // A coalition of 30 construction unions in India is demanding that the Commonwealth Games Federation address workers' rights in its charter because it says many contractors working on projects for the Games here are ignoring the safety and welfare of the workers.
The Indian government acknowledges that 42 workers have died on construction sites for venues to be used during the 11-day event that starts on October 3. Activists in New Delhi say that unreported accidents could mean the figure is closer to 100.
In a country notorious for its dismal health and safety record, migrant workers say they are experiencing some of the worst conditions they have seen in India. The claims are among a litany of controversies surrounding the Games that include huge cost overruns, corruption allegations and missed deadlines.
"For safety, it has been worse here than anywhere I have worked," said a 25-year-old fitter from the state of Bihar. "There are no helmets, nothing. We have raised this with our managers and they promise something will be done, but it has not."
He lives in filthy accommodations on the construction site for Shivaji Stadium, which will serve as hockey training facilities during the Games.
As with the other dozen workers in the room, he was terrified of giving his name for fear of losing his job. He earns 200 rupees (Dh15.8) for eight hours' work and said he is expected to do four hours of overtime every day at the same rate. The minimum wage for skilled workers in Delhi is 240 rupees.
Beside him was an unskilled labourer from Jharkhand who earns just 120 rupees per day. "How can we complain?" he said. "If I say anything to the manager, he will get rid of me and find someone else."
Six to eight workers share each ramshackle, corrugated-iron shack, sleeping on muddy floors with a single container of dirty-looking water. These are among the more fortunate. Reports in the media say hundreds of migrant workers for the Games are sleeping on footpaths and under flyovers.
"There is very little water and no medical facilities," said a 28-year-old carpenter who lives in the shack.
Following a petition by a rights group this year, the Delhi High Court ordered the state government to register the estimated 25,000 labourers on Games projects. By collecting one per cent of costs from construction companies, the government has built a fund worth about US$80 million (Dh294m), which is supposed to pay for health facilities, housing and education grants for workers' children.
Six months on, unions say, only a few hundred Games workers have been registered and that even those with identity cards are denied basic rights. None of the workers interviewed had been registered.
"It is a whitewash," said Rajeev Sharma, Delhi director for Builders and Workers International (BWI), an umbrella organisation for construction unions. "The companies register a handful of people to show the court they are doing something, but all the focus is on getting the venues ready at any cost, and workers' rights are completely ignored."
Part of the problem is the complex network of contractors and sub-contractors that hire labourers from rural areas, bring them to New Delhi and deduct large amounts from their salaries in the process.
Most migrant labourers are unaware of their rights and see little point in registering. "The company took our photo," said a 36-year-old metal worker from Bihar.
"But they never gave us a card. They say we will get benefits, but nothing has come. I know no one who has been given the things they promised."
The BWI said part of the responsibility for the conditions rests with the Commonwealth Games Federation, and has put together a petition from 30 Indian unions demanding changes.
"We want a clause in the federation charter that makes core labour standards a prerequisite of any country being awarded the games," Mr Sharma said. "We have failed the workers in this country, but we can try to make sure this never happens again."
The federation president, Mike Fennell, denied any responsibility. "We want to ensure everyone is fully respected, but we don't feel we should impose on any country our views. It is for the local government to ensure their laws are properly followed."
The New Delhi Municipal Council, which holds the construction contract for Shivaji Stadium and several other Games projects, flatly denied the allegations made by workers at their site. "All our workers are registered," said Anand Tiwari, a spokesman. "I don't think it is true that people are not getting minimum wage? We have people onsite every day to supervise these things."
A spokesman for the Delhi Legal Services Authority, which supervises the registration of workers, said site visits would begin this week to verify adherence to labour regulations on Games sites, but that it was unknown how many workers were employed or registered.
@Email:foreign.desk@thenational.ae
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Company%20Profile
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Results:
Men’s wheelchair 200m T34: 1. Walid Ktila (TUN) 27.14; 2. Mohammed Al Hammadi (UAE) 27.81; 3. Rheed McCracken (AUS) 27.81.
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, (Leon banned).
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
Cricket World Cup League Two
Oman, UAE, Namibia
Al Amerat, Muscat
Results
Oman beat UAE by five wickets
UAE beat Namibia by eight runs
Fixtures
Wednesday January 8 –Oman v Namibia
Thursday January 9 – Oman v UAE
Saturday January 11 – UAE v Namibia
Sunday January 12 – Oman v Namibia
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
The%20specs%20
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Company profile
Date started: January, 2014
Founders: Mike Dawson, Varuna Singh, and Benita Rowe
Based: Dubai
Sector: Education technology
Size: Five employees
Investment: $100,000 from the ExpoLive Innovation Grant programme in 2018 and an initial $30,000 pre-seed investment from the Turn8 Accelerator in 2014. Most of the projects are government funded.
Partners/incubators: Turn8 Accelerator; In5 Innovation Centre; Expo Live Innovation Impact Grant Programme; Dubai Future Accelerators; FHI 360; VSO and Consult and Coach for a Cause (C3)
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Specs
Engine: Electric motor generating 54.2kWh (Cooper SE and Aceman SE), 64.6kW (Countryman All4 SE)
Power: 218hp (Cooper and Aceman), 313hp (Countryman)
Torque: 330Nm (Cooper and Aceman), 494Nm (Countryman)
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh158,000 (Cooper), Dh168,000 (Aceman), Dh190,000 (Countryman)
Volvo ES90 Specs
Engine: Electric single motor (96kW), twin motor (106kW) and twin motor performance (106kW)
Power: 333hp, 449hp, 680hp
Torque: 480Nm, 670Nm, 870Nm
On sale: Later in 2025 or early 2026, depending on region
Price: Exact regional pricing TBA
The specs
Engine: 2-litre 4-cylinder and 3.6-litre 6-cylinder
Power: 220 and 280 horsepower
Torque: 350 and 360Nm
Transmission: eight-speed automatic
Price: from Dh136,521 VAT and Dh166,464 VAT
On sale: now
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League last 16, first leg
Liverpool v Bayern Munich, midnight, Wednesday, BeIN Sports
Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request
more from Janine di Giovanni
COMPANY%20PROFILE%20
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EName%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Haltia.ai%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202023%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ECo-founders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Arto%20Bendiken%20and%20Talal%20Thabet%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Dubai%2C%20UAE%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EIndustry%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20AI%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ENumber%20of%20employees%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%2041%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFunding%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20About%20%241.7%20million%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Self%2C%20family%20and%20friends%26nbsp%3B%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
THE SPECS
Engine: 6.75-litre twin-turbocharged V12 petrol engine
Power: 420kW
Torque: 780Nm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Price: From Dh1,350,000
On sale: Available for preorder now
