I would like to comment on the whole situation with workers in Qatar, UAE and Saudi Arabia. I lived in Qatar for 7 years as a US contractor. The things I saw and learned about how they treat workers from places such as India or the Philippines is horrendous. Some basic info you need to know. There is a pecking order and it goes like this: Qataris at the top.

Western expats such as myself, Australians or British are on the second rung. Arabic expats such as Lebanese, some Egyptians are third. Then you have the Philippine, and Indians (and a few other nationalities thrown in). This is a generalistic categorization but overall pretty accurate. When I arrived in Qatar to work, I was hired by a huge defense contracting company in the States. They bought my ticket, provided me a villa to live in, car, house cleaning services, laundry services and I made about 20k US dollars a month. We were issued a ration card to buy alcohol. I kept my passport, and could pretty much go and come as I damn well pleased. I still needed an exit visa but our company would issue us one every year and it was good for a year. When it expired I would just tell my Project manager, and I would have a new one in 2 days. Essentially everything was done for us. Now compare this to a third world national that comes to Qatar as a construction worker: First he has to get the job. Lets just pretend Im a worker from India. Here is how this goes:

1) I need to pay a recruiter appx. 2000-3000 USD to help me get a job in Qatar. In order to get this money I put up my family land as collateral, borrow the money, and pay a shady recruiter to help me get a work visa, contract and buy my ticket to get me to Qatar.
2) I am promised I will make about 300 to 500 dollars a month by the recruiter and paying off the loan should be no problem. Im excited and can't WAIT to go so I can make enough money to get my family out of poverty. Wow! Sounds like I might have a chance to change my stars after all!
3) I fly to Qatar and get off the plane and I'm hit with heat that would make dante's inferno feel like a cool breeze coming off the ocean.
4) As I meet up with the driver and my future boss, my passport is taken from me and I'm loaded on a bus with 30 other people to take me to what was promised as good living quarters.
5) As we travel in the middle of the night, I look out the window and see all these beautiful buildings and a beautiful skyline. Everyone looks like they have so MUCH money. I am shaking with excitement..wait, why did they take my passport?? Oh well, too late to ask now.
6) As we pull up to the place where I will be living I realize that it looks like a prison camp. Barbwire everywhere and 10' by 4' trailers with 15 people living in them. And there is an open sewer running thru the middle of the "camp". A piece of paper is thrust into my face. It's written in Arabic. I don't know what it says but my boss forces me to sign it.
7) I feel a little taken aback but still, I will be making 500 dollars a month..I can deal with it! Everything will be okay..right?
8) I get woken up, with barely any sleep and told to get ready to work. Im packed onto a bus to go to the work site. As I get off the bus, I get hit with a searing blast of heat, wind and sand that made last nights heat seem tame. They can't really expect us to work in this heat can they??? It says its almost 125 degrees outside!!
9) They shuffle us off the bus, and my boss yells at us to get to work. I work all day for 15 hours with few breaks and a 30min lunch break.
10) Im thirsty, hungry and hot but, hey, Im going to be sending money home soon to feed my family and pay off the loan. I should be able to pay off the loan in about 5 months and then its all gravy.
11) After working for a month or so I still havent gotten paid...why?? My wife, kids, and entire family are waiting to start making payments on the loan and need money for food.
12) I go ask the boss about my paycheck. He laughs when I tell him how much I was promised. He shows me the contract that I signed when I arrived (which was all in Arabic) and it states that I will be making 100USD dollars a month. But they take money out of that for my food and lodging, leaving me about 20 dollars.
13) After 3 or 4 months of not getting paid, I realize that the loan shark back in India, is about to seize my family land that has been in my family for generations! I will loose everything and have brought great shame on my family.
14) I ask to return home! I am desperate! Maybe I can find a job back in India to help pay off the loan. My boss refuses to give me my passport or issue me the required exit visa so I can leave! I have no one to turn to. It also seems that I have caught tuberculosis, from living in such horrible conditions and confined spaces with so many other men. I can barely get up to work in this heat.
15) Because of my deteriorating situation I become despondent, and throw myself off the building that I am working on. The Qatari company lists my death as work site accident. It wasn't an accident! I wasn't getting paid, I was sick with TB, and my family lost the lands they lived on for generations and now they are homeless!!
End of story. So now I am speaking as myself. This happens all the time in these countries. This was going on way before FIFA assigned the world cup to Qatar. People have no idea that modern day slavery is happening every day in these countries. To give an idea of the huge disparity on how western expats lived and how third world nationals lived. This is where I lived: http://www.alasmakhrealestate.com/profile/bhrii.aspx This is where the construction workers were housed: http://www.arabianbusiness.com/watchdog-mooted-monitor-labour-camps-in-bahrain-587523.html and this is probably one of the BETTER labor camps. Some are much much worse...like this: https://travelandtourismpr.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/image003.jpg Them getting ready to go to work in 120-130 degree weather, where the wind blows like a hot furnace. http://www.vosizneias.com/news/photos/view/447472519

Addition: I wanted to add something to this. It was one of the more disheartening things I saw while I was there. I was at the airport to pay for tickets that I ordered online. While I was in line at the ticket counter there was an Indian worker trying to leave. He had his passport but he didnt have an exit visa. In qatar, if you dont have an exit visa, you are NOT going anywhere..period. He was desperately trying to talk to the ticketing agent and he was basically being treated like he was less than zero. I could see the desperation in his eyes. He didnt speak english very well, and just kept thrusting his passport and ticket onto the counter and saying "why? why?". That was all he could say. The ticket agent tried to explain to him that he had no exit visa, hence he wasnt allowed to leave, even though he had a ticket. Can you imagine that?? Being in a country, having done nothing wrong, and not being allowed to leave. It was really kind of heart wrenching. And there was not a damn thing I could do. You cant buy an exit visa. The company you work for has to get it for you. It's called the "sponsorship system" and it probably breaks every international regulation in the books, and is only used by the Gulf States.