Migrant workers behind Riyadh metro subjected to decade of abuse, Amnesty International says

Migrant workers in Saudi Arabia who worked on the Riyadh metro project were subject to years of abuse and grim working conditions, Amnesty International revealed on Tuesday.

In a report titled "Nobody wants to work in these situations: A decade of exploration on the Riyadh Metro project," the international NGO said workers were forced to pay exorbitant recruitment fees to recruiters, to work in extreme heat, and earned meagre wages aboard the project, which began operating in December last year.

The workers, who mostly hailed from the South Asian countries of India, Bangladesh and Nepal, gave testimonies to Amnesty, adding that they worked long, arduous hours in sometimes unsafe conditions between 2014 and 2024.

"The Riyadh Metro is hailed as the backbone of the capital’s transport system, yet beneath its sleek exterior lies a decade of abuses enabled by a labour system that sacrifices migrant workers’ human rights," said Marta Schaaf, Programme Director for Climate, Economic Social Justice and Corporate Accountability at Amnesty International.

Schaaf said the years-long abuse endured by the migrant workers exposes the Saudi government's "glaring failure to enforce protections and dismantle a system that leaves workers at high risk of exploitation".

The workers’ abuse began at home, before they even reached Saudi Arabia. Some said they were forced to pay between $700 and $3,500 to recruiters in their home countries, despite the existence of Saudi laws which prohibit worker-borne recruitment fees.

One worker, 28-year-old Suman from Nepal, said he was obliged to sell his wife’s family’s savings in gold to afford the fees - only to be paid a measly $266 a month for working on the metro project.

Suman paid $2,100 in total for the recruitment fees. He said that it took six months to pay his in-laws back.

Workers were mostly paid $2 an hour. Others, such as cleaners, office assistants, and labourers, were paid less. The labourers said they also felt they had no choice but to work overtime, given their low salary, despite already working at least 60 hours a week.

"Due to the inflation in Nepal, this salary is too little to pay for household expenses. It vanishes as I pay for my children’s education and other household expenses. But what could I do? I have to manage," Nabin told Amnesty International.

Workers were also forced to endure working in 40-degree heat for over eight hours a day in summer, with some describing it as like "being in hell".

The government’s ban on working outdoors between midday and 3pm also proved to be "inadequate," Amnesty said, who expressed fears that rising temperatures will make matters worse for migrant workers.

Workers were also faced with other forms of abuse, such as passport confiscation, overcrowded and unsanitary living conditions, poor-quality food, and discriminatory treatment based on job rank.

Amnesty International said the workers' experiences "underscore not only the Saudi government’s failings but also the high-risk environment in which companies - including large multinationals - operate in when they decide to do business in Saudi Arabia’s construction sector, which depends heavily on a vast subcontracting network".

Amnesty stressed that despite the Kafala system being phased out in Saudi Arabia, it very much remains in practice. Migrant labourers are faced with discriminatory measures, high-risk environments, the weak enforcement of labour protections, and a poor human rights record while working in Saudi Arabia.

"As Saudi Arabia pushes ahead with high-profile giga-projects, including the 2034 World Cup, the authorities must completely dismantle the kafala sponsorship system and rigorously enforce labour laws in line with global human rights standards.

Strengthening safeguards and ensuring accountability for the millions of migrant workers who make these ventures possible is the only way to ensure they are no longer treated as disposable," Schaaf said.

"For companies operating in or entering Saudi Arabia, these findings should serve as a clear warning: comprehensive human rights due diligence is not optional. Without robust processes in place early on and an adequate plan to address any human rights concerns, businesses risk being directly linked or contributing to systematic labour abuses."

The NGO also urged workers’ countries to take responsibility for protecting their nationals.

The Riyadh metro workers’ plight echoes the ordeals other migrant workers have experienced while working in the oil-rich Gulf, notably in the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Qatar.

In 2023, Amnesty highlighted the exploitation and appalling conditions migrant workers faced in Qatar in order to prepare the Gulf nation to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

Earlier this year, Human Rights Watch warned of worker abuse in Saudi Arabia amid stadium-building and other preparations for the 2034 tournament.