A group of 106 migrant workers on Thursday sued two large American public relations firms, alleging the firms did communications work that aided a human trafficking venture that brought them to Qatar to build stadiums ahead of the 2022 World Cup.
The lawsuit, filed in the Southern District of New York, alleges that Omnicom Media Group and Ogilvy Public Relations, along with several of their subsidiaries, illegally assisted in “sportswashing” the image of Qatar by working to falsely combat stories about working and living conditions of migrants, many of them from the Philippines, ahead of international soccer’s marquee showcase.