A 170 kilometer long city in the middle of the desert. It is one of many ambitious mega-projects currently being worked on in Saudi Arabia. But behind the construction lies a sad reality. About 21,000 workers are said to have already died during the work, according to a documentary by the British channel ITV.
In Saudi Arabia, a number of mega projects are under construction. These are in line with Saudi Arabia’s economic reform plans to tap and thus be less dependent on oil.
The best-known megaproject is , a huge area that the country wants to develop. In addition to the gigantic ribbon city ‘The Line’ – the crown jewel of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman – it should also accommodate a trade and industry centre, a high-speed railway and tourist resorts.
A total of 140,000 workers are involved in the construction work. But the foreign workers, mainly from Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Nepal, are paying a high price for Bin Salman’s plans, the report shows. Kingdom Uncovered: Inside Saudi Arabia from the British channel ITV.
More than 5,000 Bangladeshis, 14,000 Indians and 2,000 Nepalis are said to have died since construction work began eight years ago. The channel does not state what it bases those numbers on. However, they are said to have died due to the poor and unsafe working conditions in construction.
Heart problems
One of the migrant workers who died is Nepalese Raju. Just before his death he called his family. “Please help me.” It was a cry for help because he was critically ill. Still, his boss forced him to continue working. Shortly afterwards his body was found dead in his room. His boss allegedly told him that he could only leave if he paid a fine equivalent to five months’ salary.
“If the company had sent him back home sooner, we could have done something,” his brother says. “And if he had died, at least he would have died in our arms.”
His father adds, “The Saudis make people work so hard. They don’t care if they’re dead or alive.” Authorities said his death was due to cardiac arrest.
In the documentary, workers say they work days of more than 16 hours in the scorching heat. “We have to work extremely hard. There is no time for a break,” someone said. This is despite Saudi law requiring workers to work a maximum of 60 hours per week.
Some say they have not received any wages for ten months. They feel like ‘captured slaves’. They cannot leave because their passports have been confiscated. In addition to the victims who died, more than 100,000 foreign workers were also killed.
Middle East reporter Pepijn Nagtzaam:
“Behind the splendor of all those prestige projects, there is also a nasty, messy world of the apparatus needed to set up and maintain that splendor and splendor.”
“The workers are often enticed with the promise of a stable income that is higher than in their home country. And certainly not all migrant workers in Saudi Arabia are doing poorly. There are plenty of nurses, engineers, and security guards with good bosses and better salaries than in the home country.”
“But some are simply exploited to the extreme, not paid or underpaid, treated very poorly or forced to work much too hard. And they have no rights, so they have no leg to stand on and no one to help them. You can’t complain because then you will lose your job.”
“Crown Prince Bin Salman is doing everything he can to make the world believe that Saudi Arabia is modernizing and improving human rights,” said a spokesperson for Amnesty International. “The terrible news about the many deaths in construction shows once again that this is just an appearance. The human rights situation in Saudi Arabia is worse than ever.”
Image damage
In response to the documentary, Saudi Arabia states that the number of workers killed is incorrect and that it does respect the rights of workers. The Gulf state refers to its own data that Saudi Arabia has one of the lowest work-related deaths in the world. A NEOM spokesperson said they are “investigating the claims and taking appropriate action where necessary.”
The death of thousands of migrant workers does not do the image of the kingdom any good. But the Saudis believe that a prestige project simply has more priority than human rights, says Arabist Jan Jaap van Ruiter of Tilburg University.
“Ethical-moral considerations play a much less important role there than with us. There is also a kind of feeling of superiority among the Saudis over the workers from South Asia. There is a great lack of respect for them.”
Football World Cup
The conditions in Saudi Arabia are reminiscent of those in Qatar in the run-up to the Football World Cup two years ago. Then the British newspaper The Guardian reported that they had died due to the appalling conditions in which they had to work. Although it is not official yet, Saudi Arabia will organize it.
Amnesty fears a high human toll. “We therefore call on FIFA to immediately halt the procedure for awarding the 2034 World Cup if there are no binding reforms that protect human and labor rights.”
Lack of financing
So far, the NEOM project is far from going well. Due to the disappointing financing, the city announced earlier than expected. Of the planned 170 kilometer long megacity, only 2.4 kilometers remain for the time being. The entire project reportedly costs more than a thousand billion dollars.
