On April 17, 2022 Nepali climber Nims Purja announced on social media that he was helping to take ‘Al Rihla’- the official World Cup 2022 Match Football to the summit of Mount Everest.
“I’m proud to be helping ‘Al Rihla’ – the official World Cup 2022 Match Football – on its journey to the top of #Everest. This journey is about going #beyondboundaries, believing in yourself and teamwork,” Purja tweeted.

Purja–who shot to fame with a record-setting climb of all 14 peaks above 8,000 meters in less than seven months – has found himself at the receiving end of criticism with many questioning his apathy toward Qatar’s mistreatment of Nepalis laborers, particularly those working on stadiums and other infrastructure for the upcoming World Cup.
Purja plans to carry the prized football to Everest summit himself later this month. He is also expected to be accompanied by Qatari princess Asma AI Thani who has made multiple attempts to summit the 8848.86-meter peak. Earlier this week, Thani summited Mount Kanchenjunga with Purja, thus becoming the first Arab to summit the third highest peak in the world.
Purja’s climbing in the Himalaya has been lauded as groundbreaking, but his personal behavior has often been tone-deaf. In 2019, he attracted controversy for unfurling a giant Kuwaiti flag from the summit of Ama Dablam – a mountain that many consider sacred. He also allegedly received funds from expedition members to acquire necessary permits to display and film the flag, which he failed to actually purchase.
This year, the appearance of the World Cup football at Everest Base Camp has attracted more unwanted attention. Some critics have lambasted Purja for failing to see the plight of fellow Nepalis, and others ridiculed him for associating himself with the wrong cause.
“How much are they paying you for this because the wage for Nepali workers in Qatar is $275 per month,” a twitter user wrote commenting on Purja’s announcement.

Qatar’s mistreatment of its migrant workforce including hundreds of thousands of Nepali migrants is well known to the world.
Since the tiny oil-rich nation won the bid to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup in 2010, media and advocacy groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have documented Qatar’s systematic exploitation of workers through its archaic laws and regulations. Documented cases and researches show that practices such as non-payment of salary, confiscation of passports, denial of healthcare and decent accommodation, and detention and forceful deportation are widespread.
Stories of such abuses, exploitation and deaths echo in households across rural Nepal, which sends tens of thousands of workers to Qatar every year. At least one million work permits have been issued for Nepali migrants to work in Qatar over the last twelve years, according to the Nepal’s Department of Foreign Employment.
“Qatari government officials told me that my husband was ineligible for any insurance benefit because his company didn’t provide him with any insurance coverage,” said Nirmala Rumba, the widow of a Nepali worker who died while working on the Education City Stadium in Doha, Qatar.
Rupchandra Rumba, her husband, died of cardiac arrest at his labor camp in Doha, where he was sharing a room with six other workers. He was 24 years old. Nirmala keeps asking herself how someone without any medical history could die of cardiac arrest at such a young age. Her family was dependent upon the approximately $200 that her husband earned every month.
“How am I going to raise my son, or give him proper education without my husband?,” she continued.
Rumba is one of 2,040 migrant workers who have died in Qatar since the Nepal Government started keeping records in 2007. But this number may be misleading, as the deaths only include families which received some relief from the Nepal Government’s Migrant Workers’ Welfare Fund. The actual number could be much higher.
Shanker Gole, a Nepali migrant worker who worked on the Al Bayt World Cup stadium, was deported from Qatar at the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. He was arrested while he was on his way to a grocery store near his camp in Doha with several other workers. He was immediately taken to the deportation center and deported.
“I gave 14 years of my life to that country and they rewarded me with deportation. I was denied one month’s salary and even a chance to collect my luggage,” said Gole.
Purja fits in a larger story of celebrities who have turned a blind eye to Qatar’s mistreatment of workers in exchange for publicity or funds. In recent years Qatar has also bought the favor of several footballers and celebrities to improve its image ahead of the FIFA world cup, which is set to begin on November 21.
Nicholas McGeehan, an advocate on migrant workers’ rights, said that he too was baffled by Purja’s announcement. “It’s not unusual for celebrities to do paid promotion for Qatar’s World Cup but given the scale of the abuse and exploitation to which Nepali workers have been subjected, it’s slightly disconcerting to see one of Nepal’s most famous sons assuming this role,” McGeehan, who is also a founding director of UK-based Fair Square Research, said, “ If he were to add his voice in support of calls for compensations for workers that might offset some of the criticism he’s likely to receive for this.”
Nims was unavailable for comment.