We've seen this film before: migrant workers dying without explanation, for FIFA
A new report published today shines light on a rise in deaths of migrant workers in Saudi Arabia as they ramp up preparations to host the men's 2034 World Cup
Migrant workers are already dying in large numbers in Saudi Arabia, for reasons officially unexplained, in projects related to that nation’s “Vision 2030” and the hosting of the men’s 2034 World Cup.
A new report, published today, provides fresh details.
There are no apologies from this quarter that I’m writing about a film we’ve seen before, most recently as thousands died while Qatar built infrastructure projects related to the 2022 men’s World Cup. This tweet thread summarised that, with a feature here (as it appeared in the paper below).
Many of us love football, but once in a while it’s worth remembering that the people who administer the game globally don’t really give two hoots about deaths of many impoverished and abused workers without whom many of the big occasions could’t happen.
Vision 2030, for those who don’t know, is “a government program launched by Saudi Arabia to achieve the goal of increased diversification economically, socially, and culturally, in line with the vision of Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman [aka MBS].”
Lest we forget, MBS is generally believed to have ordered the murder and dismemberment of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. (United States intelligence files to that effect here).
Khashoggi’s cut-up body was burned in a BBQ fire pit and the 15-man hit squad who carried out his execution flew from Saudi to Istanbul to kill him on a private plane that Newcastle United would later use to fly from the UK to Saudi Arabia for warm weather training.
It’s the beautiful game, remember?
Anyway, back to today’s new report from FairSquare (in full as a PDF below), which concludes: “There is a critical absence of effective policies and processes to determine the cause of migrant worker deaths in [Saudi Arabia], and the report concluded that the surge of construction associated with projects such as NEOM [and if you don’t know about NEOM, then blow your mind here] and the 2034 men's World Cup will in all likelihood lead to thousands of unexplained deaths of low-paid foreign workers in the country.”
The report continues:
"Hundreds of thousands of young men, many of whom have young families, are being pitched into a labour system that poses a serious risk to their lives, a medical system that doesn't have the capacity to determine the cause of their deaths, and a political system that doesn't appear to either protect them or find out how they died, let alone compensate the families shattered by Saudi Arabia's negligence…
"While FIFA praises Saudi Arabia to the rafters and highly-paid western law firms generate vast profits for curating Saudi's reputation, children in places like Nepal grow up without their fathers and never even learn how they died."
If you have compassion fatigue at this point and don’t want to read or know more, absolutely fair enough. That’s what the oppressive regimes who perpetrate these things want, and it’s what FIFA and Gianni Infantino wants.
If you do still care, read the full report.
If you do still care, think about ways in which you might let FIFA know that their upcoming Club World Cup, funded by $1bn of Saudi blood money, is a tournament too far.
If you are a fan of 99.9% of the world’s football clubs, then your club is getting left behind as the owners of the minority of clubs are squeezing the world’s governing bodies to shape the global game to make them richer, and damn the rest of you.
And don’t worry about the thousands of people - mostly husbands and dads and brothers and sons - who will die constructing venues for tournaments where the mega-wealthy can become more so.
Today’s new report, available above, documents the emotional and economic impact of the deaths on the dead men's families, most of whom received no meaningful information on how their loved ones died, and none of whom received any compensation from Saudi Arabia.
Nepali worker deaths have doubled annually by cause between 2008-19 and 2019-22. For example, fewer than 10 suicides per year in that first period became more than 25 per year in the latter. Six heart attack deaths in the first period became eight in the latter. About 160 total deaths per year became nearly 300.
"We have loans. We have taken loans from the village money lenders. We have 1 million rupees [$7,250] that we took to pay for my medical bills. I don't have to say more. I just need help,” said the 22-year old widow of Surya Nath
The 17 Nepali men whose deaths are investigated in the report were aged between 23 and 57 and all worked in low-paid labour-intensive sectors of the economy.
The case of 39-year old Badri Bhujel sheds light on the serious failings in Saudi Arabia's systems to certify deaths. Bhujel worked as a machine operator for Samsung C&T, a contractor constructing nearly 30km of tunnels for the proposed city of NEOM, in the north west of Saudi Arabia.
According to a hospital-issued death certificate seen by FairSquare, the cause of Bhujel's death on 11 April 2024 was "alveolar and parietoalveolar conditions", and it also notes that Bhujel had been diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis two days prior to his death.
This diagnosis is consistent with accounts given by Bhujel's colleagues, who told FairSquare that five days before his death Bhujel suddenly vomited large amounts of blood while at work and was taken to hospital by ambulance.
However, the death certificate issued by the Ministry of Interior states only that Bhujel died from a "natural death" and includes none of the information reported by the doctors who treated Bhujel.
Saudi Arabia's government ministries provide no information that allows for meaningful analysis of the numbers and circumstances of deaths.
Death certification documents issued by the Ministry of Interior in cases of deaths of non-Saudi Arabian nationals often do not reflect information contained on medical death certificates and appear to state the cause of death in all non-violent deaths as "natural death".
A 2019 study by a Saudi pathologist examined all death certificates from a Riyadh hospital between 1997 and 2016 and found that in 100% of cases the cause of death was "either incorrect or absent" and that in 75% of cases there was no cause of death at all.
A 2022 peer-reviewed academic paper by five physicians from King Saud University, described how "the medical environment [in Saudi Arabia] is generally opposed to autopsy" and found that "there is no system for medical autopsies and no training program that trains pathologists to do medical autopsy."
Saudi Arabia and FIFA both declined to comment in detail on the new report.
If the Saudi authorities and / or FIFA would be willing to grant me a visa to visit the kingdom and independently visit construction sites and worker accommodation, then I’ll personally fund that trip and document what I find.
Why not show the world, FIFA, that actually, you are for the good of the game, and that you are a force for good?
Show the world, Saudi Arabia, that you’re not just a dictatorship overseen by a murderer who will spend gazillions to buy influence on the global stage.
Have me to stay. I’ll write as I find.
Yours in sport.
Trying to genuinely understand here, so sorry if it comes off as rude. What does tuberculosis and heart attack have to do with their work? Plenty of people get these diseases around the world right? Wether they work in Saudi or not?