Concerns that employees who work on projects associated with the 2034 World Cup in Saudi Arabia will be subject to exploitation and dangerous working conditions have been voiced after the Middle Eastern nation was confirmed as the host of the 2034 World Cup last week.

The International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) has confirmed that Saudi Arabia will host the 2034 FIFA World Cup.

FIFA also announced that Morocco, Portugal and Spain had been confirmed as the hosts of the 2030 World Cup with centenary celebration matches to be played in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay.

The decision to award the Cup to Saudi Arabia had long been considered a formality after Saudi Arabia become the only nation to bid for the event. This followed a bid from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) failing to gain support and a joint bid from Australia and New Zealand being withdrawn.

However, the decision has sparked anger among advocacy groups, who claim that the awarding of the event to a nation with a poor record creates the potential for danger, exploitation and abuse of human rights.

At particular risk are migrant workers, women and the LGBTI community.

Local residents may also be vulnerable to forced relocations in order to make way for games venues.

In a joint statement released last week following the announcement, a group of 21 organisations hit out at decision.

The group includes Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Building and Woodworkers International, Sports and Rights Alliance, Gulf Centre for Human Rights, International Domestic Workers Federation and fourteen other organisations.

“Today’s confirmation of Saudi Arabia as host of the 2034 FIFA men’s World Cup, despite the well-known and severe risks to residents, migrant workers and visiting fans alike, marks a moment of great danger,” the statement read.

“It should also mark a moment for change.

“As global and regional human rights organisations, trade unions, fans groups and organisations representing migrant workers, many of us have long highlighted the severe risks posed by Saudi Arabia’s hosting of mega-sporting events. By awarding the 2034 World Cup to Saudi Arabia without meaningful protections, FIFA has today decided both to ignore our warnings and discard its own human rights policies.”

(image via Human Rights Watch web site)

The latest warning comes as Saudi Arabia is undertaking an unprecedented construction boom  as the nation attempts to diversity its economy away from oil.

Known as Vision 2030, the program involves spending hundreds of billions of dollars on self-described ‘giga projects’ (smart cities, tourism etc.) across the country.

Spending plans on construction for the World Cup alone are huge. These include 11 stadiums, four refurbishments of existing stadiums, more than 185,000 new hotel rooms and significant airport, road, rail and bus network expansion.

Largely speaking, the work to put all of this in place will be done by migrant workers, who currently number 13.4 million or 42 percent of the country’s population.

However, there is widespread concern that workers will be subject to exploitation and unsafe working conditions.

In a damning report release earlier this month, Human Rights Watch outlined cases of appalling  worker treatment including on the aforementioned megaprojects.

Based on interviews with 142 current or former migrant workers as well as 14 family members of workers had had died in the country, the report documented widespread labour abuses at every point in the migration cycle.

These range from exorbitant recruitment fees (charged to workers), unpaid wages, unsafe working conditions (including climate-linked extreme heat for outdoor workers – often without breaks) and unexplained worker fatalities which are not investigated and in regard to which families receive no compensation.

In one case, a former Saudi Arabian worker from Nepal was promised a monthly salary of SAR 1200 [$US 346] for an eight hour per day position as a waiter in a hotel.

Instead, he has been forced to spend fourteen-hour days slaving away carrying loads at a furniture factory with no additional pay.

Whilst the workers was paid on time for the first two months, he was constantly paid late thereon after.

When asking about payment, his manager told him to ‘die first and I’ll pay you later.’

To obtain the job, the worker paid $US1,115 in recruitment fees to the agent – more than three months’ worth of salary.

Meanwhile, a construction worker employed on a $500 billion futuristic project smart city project was promised SAR 1,200 [$320] to work indoors as a waiter but is instead being paid just SAR 800 [$213] to work on construction at the project.

To obtain this job, he paid more than $US1,200 in recruitment fees – almost six months’ worth of actual wages which were received.

In a further case, a worker who was trapped in extreme working conditions was beaten and had his phone smashed by his employer after calling for help on social media.

Several factors enable this kind of behaviour to occur.

For one thing, the country’s kafala or labor sponsorship system ties the legal status of workers to their respective employers – despite several rounds of labour reforms which the Saudi Government claims enables workers to exit existing employment more readily. This means that workers who are exploited by their employer are not able to readily seek alternatives (many also are forced to borrow in order to pay the recruitment fees and are therefore forced to keep working despite being exploited).

Further, the country maintains harsh restrictions on free expression and prevents workers from joining trade unions or participating in collective bargaining or strikes.

This means that those who experience exploitation are left to fend for themselves and are denied opportunities to band together or to speak about their treatment.

The Saudi Government does little and rarely holds employers to account. This means that employers are able to engage in exploitation with little or no consequence.

As noted above meanwhile, migrant workers are not the only ones at risk of human rights abuses during the preparations for and hosting of the Cup.

Others at risk include women, members of the LGBTI community (including athletes, officials, spectators, journalists and others), activists (who may be sentenced to decades in prison for expressing themselves peacefully) or residents who may be forcibly evicted without compensation to make way for games venues and facilities.

The latest warnings come as FIFA has sustained heavy criticism over recent years as a result of migrant worker deaths and exploitation on projects that were associated with the Qatar World Cup in 2022.

According to the Hassan al-Thawadi, the secretary general of the Supreme Committee for delivery and legacy who was responsible for delivering the Qatar World Cup, the number of migrant workers who died on World Cup related projects was between 400 and 500.

However, estimates from The Guardian suggest that this number is actually in the thousands.

In addition, FIFA is refusing to compensate either families of workers who died or workers who suffered injury or unpaid wages whilst employed in construction on World Cup facilities. This is despite its own sub-committee on human rights and social responsibility recommending that such workers and families receive compensation.

In their statement, the organisations say that FIFA’s human rights policies have been exposed as shambolic.

They promise to continue to advocate for the rights of all involved.

“FIFA has long accepted that it has a clear responsibility, in line with international human rights standards, to prevent and mitigate human rights violations and abuses connected to its activities, as well as to provide remedy for those to which it has contributed,” the statement read.

“By pursuing today’s decision regardless of the known risks, FIFA will bear a heavy responsibility for much of what follows.

“In the process of awarding the 2034 World Cup, FIFA’s human rights policies have been exposed as a sham. Without competitive bidding, there was little prospect of bids being rejected – no matter how poor the human rights strategy, or how severe the outstanding risk. There was no consultation with people likely to be impacted by either tournament, nor specific or binding measures agreed that will ensure compliance with international labour standards or more comprehensive human rights reforms.

“Together, we will continue to advocate for the rights of everyone in Saudi Arabia and beyond – migrant worker, resident, citizen, player, fan, activist or journalist – who may be impacted by the 2034 World Cup. While the Saudi population undoubtedly deserves to experience the joy that international sport can bring, this cannot come at any price. It must go hand in hand with measures to guarantee the rights that their government continues to deny them.

“In the decade ahead we will mobilize the human rights community across the globe to ensure the violations and abuses of this World Cup are not ignored, and press for the fundamental changes needed to protect lives and expand freedoms. The Saudi authorities, FIFA, national Football Associations, FIFA sponsors and companies involved in the World Cup – or profiting hugely from it – all have human rights obligations and responsibilities, and we will seek to hold them accountable.”

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