Dozens of migrants working on Qatar's $45 billion World Cup final city of Lusail have gone unpaid for months, Amnesty International said yesterday, the latest rights accusation against the 2022 tournament host.

Mercury MENA, a contractor, "failed to pay its workers thousands of dollars in wages and work benefits, leaving them stranded and penniless" in the country, according to the London-based rights group.

FIFA yesterday accused Amnesty of being "misleading" and said the non-payments were not connected to the 2022 tournament.

"We have no reason to believe the reported violations of workers' rights are in fact linked to FIFA and the 2022 World Cup," a FIFA spokesman told AFP.

"We regret Amnesty chose to frame its statement in such a misleading manner."

Amnesty said at least 78 employees from Nepal, India and the Philippines had not been paid since February 2016 and were owed an average of $2,000 (1,700 euros) -- for some the equivalent of several months' wages.

In some cases this had "ruined lives", said Amnesty, which urged the Doha government to pay the workers, some of whom took out huge loans to secure a job in the super-wealthy Gulf state.

One worker, Ernesto, a piping foreman from the Philippines, told Amnesty he was in greater debt after working in Qatar for two years than before he arrived in the country.

Other labourers from Nepal said they had to take their children out of school or sell land to cover debts incurred by working in Qatar.