2034 Saudi WC bid set to be ratified by FIFA despite widespread criticism and questioning over the state of human rights in the nation.
2034 Saudi bid to be ratified by Fifa despite rights violations.
Human rights organisations predict that “severe and widespread rights violations” will likely result from Saudi Arabia hosting the men’s World Cup in 2034, as they await FIFA’s approval of the Gulf state’s candidacy this week.
Although the nation is the only bidder for the tournament, it has come under fire for how it has treated migrant workers, primarily from Asia and Africa, who are essential to its capacity to construct the new football stadiums and other facilities required to host one of the biggest athletic events in the world.
Over 10 million migrants reside in Saudi Arabia and work in the domestic industry, hotels, and construction. Humanitarian organisations claim that they have experienced abusive conditions, such as hazardous and unhealthy working conditions, unlawful recruitment fees, and underpaid pay.
Rights campaigners claim that the subpar living and working conditions that many migrants face may have contributed to the deaths of workers in Saudi Arabia, and Saudi officials have been accused of failing to look into the reason of these deaths.
According to a Guardian investigation earlier this year, there were at least 13,685 unexplained fatalities of Bangladeshi migrant labourers in Saudi Arabia between 2008 and 2022. In 2022 alone, over 1,500 Bangladeshis lost their lives, or more than four every day.
“How can we say if the death was natural or not? He died in Saudi Arabia, and we didn’t see him,” one Nepali relative of a migrant worker, whose death was categorised as due to natural causes, told Human Rights Watch.
Steve Cockburn, head of labour rights and sport at Amnesty International, said: “There’s no doubt there are workers working in unsafe conditions without the protections they require. If they [Saudi Arabia] are denying a problem then they won’t be finding a solution.”
The mistreatment of numerous migrant workers in the run-up to the 2022 tournament in Qatar drew harsh criticism from FIFA. Without demanding any legally binding promises to stop additional labour abuse, it will, nevertheless, certify Saudi Arabia as the host this week.
Human rights organisations claim the bid “whitewashes” the Gulf kingdom’s history of exploitation and repression of migrant workers’ rights because it did not address the alleged abuse of migrant workers in a report by the law firm AS&H Clifford Chance, which was commissioned by Saudi Arabia and submitted to Fifa as part of its bid.
“This isn’t modernisation; it’s sportswashing,” said Aldossari.