11 February,2014 01:46 AM IST | | AFP
The International Olympic Committee said yesterday that it launched a full investigation after discovering that hundreds of migrants who worked on the Sochi Games had not been paid
Sochi: The International Olympic Committee said yesterday that it launched a full investigation after discovering that hundreds of migrants who worked on the Sochi Games had not been paid.
IOC spokesman Mark Adams said that the Committee had met with human rights activists in Sochi who had submitted a "full list" of 200 workers who had not been paid by Russian firms.
"Following that we instigated a full investigation," he told reporters. "I think they (Russia) investigated some 500 companies, all the companies that they could identify of having been involved in the construction," he added.
Thousands of migrant workers, largely from the poorest ex-Soviet Central Asian states of Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan were involved in the frenetic push to build the Sochi infrastructure on time.
Adams said that while the process of ensuring all workers were paid what they were due was not finished, the Russian authorities were making progress.
"I know we are waiting for more documents, eventually, from the Russian authorities. But we can certainly say that a lot of the cases of people not being paid have been followed up.
A lot of companies have been investigated, a lot of companies have been fined."
