RUSSIAN authorities want to use prison labour to drive down the costs of holding the 2018 World Cup.
The Russian prison service is backing a bid by Alexander Khinshtein, a politician from the ruling United Russia party, to allow prisoners to be taken from their camps to work at factories, with a focus on driving down the costs of building materials for World Cup projects.
“It’ll help in the sense that there will be the opportunity to acquire building materials for a lower price, lower than there is currently on the market,” Khinshtein told Associated Press.
“And apart from that it’ll make it possible to get prisoners into work, which is very positive.”
Russian prison labour schemes have faced allegations that prisoners are routinely underpaid or forced to work long hours.
The proposal comes after criticism that Qatar was using immigrant workers in slavery-like conditions in order to realise its plans for the 2022 World Cup.
An Amnesty International report found Qatar was using workers from some of the poorest countries, forcing them to work up to 14 hours a day, for months at a time without pay, in temperatures of up to 45C with inadequate access to water, safety equipment or medical care.
The 2018 World Cup is taking place from June 14 to July 15 of that year, in as many as 11 different host cities.

http://www.news.com.au/sport/football/russias-plan-to-use-prison-labour-for-2018-fifa-world-cup/story-fnkjl6g2-1227369217131