NICOLA Sturgeon was last night under pressure to speak out about human rights abuses in Qatar ahead of Scotland hosting a football match with the Gulf state tomorrow.

Alison Johnstone, the Scottish Green MSP, has written to the First Minister highlighting widespread concerns over the deaths of hundreds of migrant workers involved in building stadiums and facilities for the Qatar World Cup in 2022 and urged her to take a stand on the matter.

According to the International Trade Union Confederation, Play Fair Qatar and the NewFifaNow group, an estimated 1200 workers have already died in the construction programme.

Johnstone said with further sporting fixtures coming up involving nations where human rights abuses are a major problem, it was vital the Scottish Government took a consistent stance.

“This is an opportunity to establish what action by the Scottish Government will be helpful in such cases where matters of political integrity and sport overlap,” she said in her letter.

“It is important we adopt a stance that can be consistently applied to the one-off friendly match against Qatar, the qualification campaign for Qatar 2022 itself – and indeed Russia 2018, and the upcoming 2015 European Games in Baku, Azerbaijan. All of these events are set to take place against the backdrop of serious human rights concerns, and all deserve our attention.”

She added: “Amnesty International has shown that abuse and exploitation of migrant construction workers remains a serious issue. We must consider how Scotland’s voice can aid the growing worldwide effort to tackle dangerous working conditions ahead of 2022, and human rights abuses more generally. Boycotts can be an important way of demonstrating concern, but we must consider whether and how boycotts should form part of a wider strategy, and whether we need to establish criteria by which to accept or extend invitations to play or to host sporting events in the first place.”

Earlier this week Neil Findlay, the Labour MSP, called for the Scotland v Qatar friendly due to be played at Easter Road in Edinburgh to be scrapped when he put down a motion on the issue in Holyrood.

He said the conditions endured by construction workers in Qatar were a “modern-day scandal”.

Findlay added: “Postponing the friendly between Scotland and Qatar shows that we will not tolerate the scandalous treatment of workers in Qatar.

“I hope that common sense and decency prevails and that Scotland doesn’t play this game.”

More than 20 MSPs have now signed Findlay’s motion, including the Greens co-convener Patrick Harvie and the Liberal Democrat’s Tavish Scott.

At the time of publication no SNP MSP had supported it. The Scottish Trades Union Congress along with Amnesty International have stopped short of calling for the match to be axed.

Instead the STUC will hand out leaflets outside the game to raise awareness of the plight of workers and urge Fifa and the SFA to take action.

Despite the growing pressure, football chiefs had no plans to axe the game.

The SFA said the match had been organised as national coach Gordon Strachan wanted a fixture to help prepare for the Euro qualifiers clash with Ireland.

A spokesman said earlier this week that it was “important to separate this sporting fixture from the serious human rights issues emanating from Qatar” and that the Scottish FA “condemn any behaviour that compromises human rights.”

Jamie Hepburn, minister for sport, health improvement and mental health, said: “Scotland has a strong commitment to securing democracy, the rule of law and fundamental human rights across the world, and we expect all states to comply with international human rights law, including Qatar.

“Earlier this year External Affairs Minister Humza Yousaf spoke with the Qatar Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy to raise Scotland’s concerns around human rights in relation to their World Cup preparations.

“As the SFA and Amnesty International have set out, football has the power to be a force for good and to unite people of different nations. The SFA share the public’s concerns, but I understand they have made the decision to go ahead with the game. This decision is a matter for the SFA.”

Pauline Kelly, Amnesty International’s acting programme director in Scotland said: “We are not calling for this game to be cancelled or boycotted as we believe it offers us an effective way to spotlight the horrendous human rights abuses that will be taking place in Qatar as the match kicks off on Friday.”