Saudi Arabia is hard at work erecting Aramco Stadium, one of nearly a dozen new venues being built in advance of the FIFA World Cup being hosted there in 2034. Now, however, the death of a migrant worker at that site has reinvigorated pushback against what human rights groups say are risky work conditions at these construction sites. Sources tell the Guardian that on March 12, Pakistani native Muhammad Arshad took a fatal fall from an upper level of the still-in-the-works stadium in the city of Al Khobar, the first known migrant death tied to the 2034 event.
Arshad's death was confirmed by BESIX Group, the parent company of one of the on-site contractors. The company explained in a statement that the platform that Arshad and two workers were on had "tilted," and that "while all three were equipped with personal fall-arrest systems, one worker was not connected to an anchor point at the time of the incident and fell, sustaining severe injuries." The statement notes that Arshad, believed to be a foreman at the site, died of his injuries at the hospital.
The Guardian notes that many of the crew working on the 47,000-seat stadium are from Pakistan and Bangladesh, and that an investigation last year revealed that some of the migrant workers there were found to have been subjected to abusive conditions, working in steamy conditions for little pay that was often delayed. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch are among the human rights groups that have decried labor abuses and the "exploitation" of migrant workers in Saudi Arabia ahead of the soccer tournament.
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A report commissioned by FIFA late last year recommended that the sports organization itself take responsibility for any migrant deaths incurred during World Cup construction, compensating workers and/or their families in the event of injuries or fatalities. In a statement, BESIX said it had made "significant strides" in improving worker welfare, though it conceded that "some local contexts have proven challenging," per the Guardian. Meanwhile, Aramco, the Saudi state oil company that's developing the stadium, said workers' well-being is "our highest priority." FIFA has yet to comment. (More Saudi Arabia stories.)
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