“Die First, and I'll Pay You Later”
www.hrw.org
The 79-page report, “‘Die First, and I’ll Pay You Later’: Saudi Arabia’s ‘Giga-Projects’ Built on Widespread Labor Abuses,” documents widespread abuses against migrant workers, some of which may amount to situations of forced labor, including exorbitant recruitment fees, rampant wage theft, inadequate protections from extreme heat, restrictions on transferring jobs, and uninvestigated worker deaths. Saudi authorities have systematically failed to prevent or remedy these abuses, including at high-profile projects financed by its sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF).

I paid US$1,115 in recruitment fees to the agent which I borrowed from relatives at 42 percent interest rate. I was told that I would be working as a waiter in a hotel but was instead placed as a laborer in a furniture factory where I had to carry loads. It was not per my contract. My [promised] monthly salary was SAR 1200 [$346] for eight hours, but I had to work 14 hours a day. I was paid on time for the first two months but was never paid on time thereafter. When I asked my manager for my payment, he would answer, ‘Die first, and I’ll pay you later.’ ―A former Saudi Arabia-based migrant worker from Nepal

Migrant workers are the engine of Saudi Arabia’s massive construction boom. There are 13.4 million migrant workers in Saudi Arabia, representing 42 percent of the country’s population. Yet despite their indispensable contributions, Human Rights Watch has found, based on interviews with 156 current and former workers from Saudi Arabia or workers’ family members between 2023-2024, that migrant workers are facing widespread labor abuses across employment sectors and geographic regions. Saudi authorities are systematically failing to protect them from and remedy these abuses.

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This blatant failure to protect migrant workers creates a near certainty that the 2034 World Cup, which the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) has engineered to award to Saudi Arabia as the sole bidder, will be stained with pervasive rights violations