Dubai, United Arab Emirates – Dozens of workers from countries such as India, Bangladesh and Nepal have faced preventable deaths for electrocution, traffic accidents, height falls and more while working in Saudi Arabia, according to a report on Wednesday by the human defense group Human Rights Watch.
Human Rights Watch and another Rights Group, Firesquare, published separate research on Wednesday detailing the preventable deaths of migrant workers of work accidents and work -related diseases.
The reports accuse the Saudi authorities of informing such deaths and not investigating, preventing families from receiving compensation from the kingdom to which they are entitled and know how their loved ones died.
As Saudi Arabia advances with hundreds of billions of dollars in infrastructure and development initiatives, including the 2034 Male World Cup and the futuristic city Neom – Right groups warn thousands of more avoidable deaths in the coming years.
In one case, Human Rights Watch said a Bangladesh worker was electrocuted at work. But his employer allegedly retained the body, telling the family that they would be compensated only if they agreed a local burial.
Another family reported that he waited almost 15 years before the Saudi government compensated it.
“It is very urgent that the Saudi and FIFA authorities have established basic protections of labor rights,” said Minky Worden, director of Global Initiatives of Human Rights Watch, to The Associated Press, referring to the World Football Government Body.
The authorities in Saudi Arabia did not respond to a request for comments.
Fairsquare, who examined the deaths of 17 Nepali contractors in Saudi Arabia in the last 18 months, warned in his report that without responsibility, it is likely that they will continue “thousands of inexplicable deaths” of poorly paid foreign workers.
“In some cases, money lenders pursued by loans that her husband or father (dead) took to migrate to the Gulf,” said James Lynch, who co -directed Firesquare.
Saudi Arabia has faced for a long time accusations of labor abuses And the salary theft linked to its Vision 2030 project, an effort of great money to diversify its economy beyond oil dependence.
FIFA shared with the AP a letter that sent Human Rights Watch last month defending the selection of Saudi Arabia as a host of the 2034 World Cup.
The letter cited the commitments of the Saudi to establish “a system of well -being of the workers” and improve the “labor protections throughout the country, even through a strengthened collaboration” with the United Nations International Labor Organization.
The kingdom is not the only Arab Gulf state that is accused of abusing migrant workers in the period prior to a World Cup. Rights groups Also criticized Qatarwho organized the competition in 2022, saying that they counted thousands of deaths of inexplicable workers.
But this time he has the potential to be even worse for foreign workers, said Worden, and pointed out that the 2034 World Cup has plans to require more stadiums and infrastructure with more equipment competing.
Qatar established a supervision board called Supreme Committee, which monitored the FIFA construction sites and took reports of unsafe working conditions.
“There is no committee like that in Saudi Arabia,” said Worden, added: “In the end, Qatar had concrete policies such as life insurance and heat protection. They are not in their place now” in Saudi Arabia.
The details of the investigations of Human Rights Watch and Fairsquare arrive a day after the president of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, joined the president of the United States, Donald Trump, on his official visit to Saudi Arabia, where Trump met with the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, Prince Mohammed Bin Bin Salman.
