Turkey to send 3,000 police to Qatar to aid secure World Cup

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A Turkish Interior Ministry source said that Ankara will send over 3,000 riot police to Qatar to help secure World Cup stadiums and hotels as part of a security operation funded by the competition's hosts but led by Turkey.

With a population of less than 3 million people, only 380,000 of whom are Qataris, Qatar is facing a personnel shortage as it prepares for the month-long FIFA soccer tournament.

Simultaneously, it resorted to Turkey to secure the competition, which is expected to attract 1.2 million visitors to the gas-exporting Gulf state.

Ankara will send 3,000 riot police and 100 special operations police to Qatar, along with 50 bomb specialists and 80 sniffer and riot dogs, as per a protocol inked between the two countries and published in Turkey's official gazette.

"During the tournament, Turkish police will only take orders from their Turkish superiors who are serving temporarily in Qatar," the Turkish source said. 

"The Qatari side will not be able to give direct orders to the Turkish police”, it added.

The same source also stressed that "all expenses of the personnel deployed...will be covered by the state of Qatar."

However, the source did not specify who would have ultimate authority over Turkey's security operation, which will include eight stadiums and hotels where the 32 national soccer teams will stay.

Turkey will also send senior officers to lead police teams, as well as "a number of personnel for coordination" and one "general coordinator," as per the protocol agreement.

What do you need to know?

The 2022 World Cup will be held in Qatar, making it the first time a World Cup has been held in an Arab country. To avoid the heat of Qatar, the tournament will be held from November to December, rather than in the summer, as is customary.

The decision to hold the World Cup in Qatar has been widely panned. According to a Department of Justice investigation, top FIFA officials were bribed to award the tournament to the Arab country.

Numerous investigations by organizations such as Human Rights Watch and media outlets such as The Guardian revealed that Qatar's stadiums were built by migrant workers who were effectively treated as slaves, with their passports confiscated and their wages suspended.

Read next: New normalization deal? Qatar allows Israelis to attend World Cup

According to a 2021 investigation, at least 6,500 migrant workers have died in Qatar as a result of harsh working conditions (such as a lack of access to water) since the country was awarded the World Cup in 2010.

The first four games of the 2022 World Cup will be played on November 21, with England taking on Iran and the United States taking on Wales (all teams in Group B).