That is exactly what it is. The author and/or editor should have had a spine and made the headline: "Revealed: Qatar's World Cup slaves"

You're ascribing American notions of journalism to a British paper. They are not scare quotes.

Yes, our libel laws are much stronger. And scarier in scope.

In England that would read like hack journalism. It would cheapen the paper and make people doubt the story.

I now understand that they are not using scare quotes in this case (which is what my mistaken objection was to), but I don't think that would be hack journalism. They still don't quote like that for the phrase "sex slave" for instance.

Better to let the reader make up their own opinion rather than to push your own.

'Slave' is a loaded term, it's like calling someone a 'terrorist' or a 'murderer'.

I worked in Qatar for several months. It is modern day slavery precisely.