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US senators urge FIFA to dismiss Russia as World Cup host over use of NK labor
By Kim Min-jooPublished : Aug. 3, 2017 - 14:36
A group of eight US senators has called on FIFA to consider dismissing Russia as the host of the
2018 World Cup if a probe into Moscow's alleged use of North Korean workers is true, a statement showed Thursday.
The group led by US Senator Bob Menendez, senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has sent a letter to FIFA demanding it heed growing calls to open a probe into reports that North Korean workers were exploited on a World Cup stadium site in Russia, according to the statement uploaded on his website.
The senators called on FIFA to "consider disqualifying Russia as host of the 2018 World Cup should an independent investigation determine that the Russian government or local organizing committee was complicit in subjecting North Korean construction workers to forced labor," it showed.
The Norwegian football magazine Josimar earlier reported that at least about 100 North Koreans have been suffering from long hours of work at a construction site for the World Cup stadium in St. Petersburg since last year.
The 2018 World Cup will be held in 11 cities in Russia from June 14 to July 15.
The lawmakers urged the world's football governing body to expel North Korea from its membership, given Pyongyang's serious human rights violations.
"A government that is one of the world's foremost human rights violators should not be allowed to reap international legitimacy, and to financially benefit, from the world's most popular sport," the letter showed.
North Koreans toiling in overseas countries are forced to send a bulk of their income to the regime while working under harsh conditions and facing human rights violations. (Yonhap)
