A new documentary, Kingdom Uncovered: Inside Saudi Arabia, has revealed the total amount of worker deaths related to Mohammed bin Salman’s Saudi Vision 2030, a multitrillion dollar program which includes NEOM and the Line.
According to the exposé by ITV, more than 21,000 Indian, Bangladeshi, and Nepalese workers have died in Saudi Arabia since 2017 working on various aspects of Saudi Vision 2030. And according to The Hindustan Times, reports show that more than 100,000 people have “disappeared”during NEOM’s construction.
Workers also say that, under current working conditions, they are “trapped slaves” and “beggars.” There’s also been reports of wage theft, illegal working hours, and human rights abuses. More than 20,000 Indigenous people were also forcefully removed from the region to make way for NEOM.
One of those Australian executives, Wayne Borg, was accused of making several racist comments about laborers. After three workers died from a falling pipe, a wall collapse, and the mishandling of explosives, Borg said over obtained audio: “A whole bunch of people die so we’ve got to have a meeting on a Sunday night.”
That last quote sounds like something a Borg would say. Resistance is futile.
Although I do find the idea of arcologies intriguing, building one on death, slavery, and other human rights abuses really taints it.
21,000+ dead and 100,000+ missing sounds like a war is happening in Saudi Arabia. Those are shocking numbers.
Wait they are actually building this thing? I though it was just another fever dream
It’s becoming difficult to tell the difference.
It’s OK everyone. They were poor and brown.
Saudi Arabia and human rights abuse?? Say it ain’t so!
Better fill up my tank
And the US is completely ok with this. smh
Not US citizens, I’m way more upset that India and Sri Lanka are OK with this.
Obviously Pakistan is fine, surprised they didn’t offer the laborers as a package deal, or with their organs a la carte.
This is actually happening in a completely different sovereign nation called Saudi Arabia.
Yes, which has multi-billion dollar deals with US defense contractors. This should not be ok. But the US loves money more than humanity.
Oh the old “US should be world police” argument.
It seems pretty obvious to me that they’re suggesting BDS and not a military invasion.
Where’s that coming from? I’m just saying the US shouldn’t do business with a country that enslaves, tortures and murders people on the regular.
I mean China is a huge economy, that’s kind of asking a lot.
There’s idealistic foreign policy, and there’s pragmatic foreign policy
