GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — A complaint accusing Saudi Arabia of abusing migrant workers has been deemed admissable by the United Nations labor agency, it said Thursday, amid fears that abuse could swell as the country prepares to host the 2034 World Cup.
Last June, the Building and Wood Workers’ International union filed a complaint with the International Labor Organization on behalf of 21,000 alleged victims of “severe human rights abuses” and wage theft in Saudi Arabia.
It alledged that “exploitative living and working conditions among the country’s vast migrant workforce” were “akin to forced labor.”
The complaints focus on two Saudi-based construction firms, BWI and Equidem, that went bankrupt in 2016.
Both BWI and Equidem contend conditions for migrant workers have not improved in a country where non-Saudi nationals account for 13.4 million people out of a total 32.2 million.
The ILO’s governing body had determined last November that the complaint was “receivable,” agency chief Gilbert Houngbo told reporters.
Unpaid wages, shoddy housing and hours of toil in life-threatening heat are common grievances for migrant workers in Saudi Arabia.