Almost 60 percent of Qatar's 2.4 million population live in what the government calls "labour camps", figures from an April 2015 census showed yesterday, highlighting the issue of the emirate's huge migrant workforce.

The figures from the Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics (MDPS) revealed that 1.4 million people live in what the department officially designates as "labour camps".

At the time of the survey, the official population was 2.4 million. That works out at just over 58 per cent of the country's population.

The overwhelming majority -- 1.34 million - were male, the statistics found. Since the census, Qatar's population has grown further to just over 2.5 million. The accommodation of migrant labourers working on Qatar's numerous infrastructure projects has long been a contentious issue.

Qatar, which will host the football World Cup in 2022, has been condemned by human rights groups, including Amnesty International, for providing "squalid and cramped accommodation" for its large migrant workforce.