Qatar is allegedly building walls to hide poor neighbourhoods during the World Cup
Topics: Football, World News, TikTok, Viral, Social Media
Poppy Bilderbeck
Featured Image Credit: @k_op11.5 / TikTok
Topics: Football, World News, TikTok, Viral, Social Media
People are flooding to social media in shock after a TikTok video accused Qatar of building walls around its less affluent areas.
The 2022 Qatar World Cup may have only kicked off yesterday, Sunday 20 November, but it's already been causing quite the stir.
From the problematic nature of it being held in a country which holds homophobic and sexist attitudes, as well as reports of migrant workers having died during the construction of the stadiums.
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A video has since gone viral which accuses the country of building walls around its poorer areas.
Viewers have taken to social media in outrage.
In the TikTok post, the person recording the video can be seen travelling in a car down a street, allegedly in Qatar.
The video shows what appears to be a newly constructed wall on the corner of a street.
The wall continues as the car drives on, and carries on a significant way down the street, before a gap can be spotted.
The gap in the wall reveals an area containing cars and buildings which looks significantly more run down and less privileged compared to other areas in the country.
The wall then continues after the car drives for another couple of seconds - the gap in the middle likely to be built across and filled in rather than left gaping.
In the comments, the creator of the video writes: [Translated] "IN QATAR, BEFORE THE CHAMPIONSHIP, THEY ARE BUILDING A WALL AROUND THE POOR NEIGHBORHOODS.
"IT LOOKS LIKE THEY ARE RUNNING AWAY FROM US."
"[...] Are you from Qatar? There are poor people everywhere, don't read fortunes without knowing them."
The video has since gone viral on multiple social media platforms including TikTok and Reddit, with users having flocked to the sites in outrage over the alleged move.
One said: "Qatar is not what you and I thought. Poor people are found in that land."
A Reddit user commented: "They should have used the money to build nice neighborhoods that don't have to be hidden."
However, other users have argued the construction of fences around poorer areas has taken place in other countries during other sporting events too.
They said: "This is practically a tradition with major international sports events now."
"I remember visiting a shantytown in South Africa that you could see one of the World Cup stadiums from. The residents would tell us how for the duration of the games the government would supply their homes with electricity but the minute they were over, electricity was cut again. Certainly seems to be a pattern," another responded.
A third echoed: "Brazil did the same thing for the olympics."