Monday 3 June 2019 22:29, UK
The chairman of Qatar 2022's organising committee says the "high number" of deaths recorded by the latest workers' welfare report are a "tragedy", but insists the Gulf state is making progress.
Between February 2018 and January of this year, 10 workers died away from building sites, with nine of them dying in their bedrooms and six of those being under 36.
The men were aged between 26 and 49 and five of them came from Bangladesh, three from India and two from Nepal.
The Gulf nation won the right to stage the 2022 World Cup in December 2010.
Human rights groups, trade unions and the governments of the countries which provide most of the workforce for building infrastructure there have called on Qatar to improve living conditions, raise safety standards, reduce the amount of control employers can exert and increase pay.
Most of the Annual Report is dedicated to these improvements but there is also a section on "non-work-related deaths".
"The Supreme Committee is cognisant that this is a high number of deaths and has been putting in place targeted programmes for early detection and treatment of potential health risks and issues," the report says.
Speaking to reporters at a meeting of FIFA's ruling council in Paris, the Secretary General for delivering the World Cup Hassan Al Thawadi said: "There's no doubt that every death is a tragedy, it's as simple as that.
"While progress has been made in the state of Qatar there is still a long way to go.
"We are working very hard with (non-governmental organisations), medical institutions, trade unions and universities to do everything we can to address these issues.
"I can't speak on the time (it has taken), I can speak about the progress that has been made. As I said, in relation to death, no matter what we say, it's never going to be enough.
"But we are doing everything we can and we are making sure that whatever solutions we put in, aren't just solutions for while we're under the spotlight but solutions that remain beyond 2022."
One of the proposed reforms is an increase in the minimum wage from 750 Qatari Riyal a month (£162.56) to 900 Riyal (£195.07), although Al Thawadi admitted he did not know when it would be introduced.
