6) Migrant Workers Left Unpaid
A construct as ginormous as the Winter Games needs a workforce equally ginormous. To meet the need for man power hundreds of thousands of workers have been shipped in to fill the gap. With ever-increasing pressure on the budget and time and money running short, many workers did not get paid. Many had no choice but to keep working as management withheld their documents and passports.
Migrants from Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Serbia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan have flooded in to work since 2007. Many have complained of lack of pay, excessive hours, overcrowded housing, inadequate food, and, in recent months, unlawful detentions and hasty deportations.
It seems that Russia’s recent crack down on illegal immigration has given them an easy get out. If they can’t pay a worker from another country they simply deport them. Problem solved.
One worker Roman Kuznetsov (pictured above) has sewn his own mouth shut and gone on hunger strike after not being paid for two months. A migrant worker from Ukraine said “People work, they don’t get paid, and leave. Then a bus comes and unloads a fresh group of workers to repeat the cycle”.
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