A migrant worker has been killed while working on a new stadium for the 2034 World Cup in Saudi Arabia.
Muhammad Arshad, a father-of-three from Pakistan, fell to his death last week during the construction of the Aramco Stadium in the eastern city of Al Khobar.
It is the first known migrant worker death linked to the 2034 World Cup, which Fifa awarded to Saudi Arabia at the end of last year after the country’s state-owned oil company, Aramco, became its most lucrative sponsor. December’s decision was made despite warnings from human rights groups, with Amnesty International saying: “Migrant workers will face exploitation and many will die.”
Details of last week’s tragedy were disclosed by Belgian construction multinational Besix Group, a subsidiary of which is one of the main contractors at the stadium.
“A team of three workers was engaged in formwork operations [creating moulds for concrete] at height when the platform they were working on tilted. While all three were equipped with personal fall-arrest systems, one worker was not connected to an anchor point at the time of the incident and fell, sustaining severe injuries,” the company said in a statement. It said that emergency services were immediately called but “the worker sadly succumbed to his injuries in hospital”.
Witnesses were told not to share any photographs or video of the incident.
Besix said: “Out of respect for the victim’s family, workers were asked not to share images of the consequences of the tragic accident on social media. Safety is and remains our absolute priority … The authorities are conducting a full inquiry, and we are fully cooperating to determine the exact circumstances of this tragedy.”
Arshad’s father, Muhammad Bashir, told the Guardian: “We have just fallen from the sky to the ground. The whole family is in a state of shock.”
He added of his son’s children – three boys aged between seven and two: “It will have a long-lasting impact on their lives. Arshad’s income was their only source of living. We will have to bear their living and educational expenses. We will try to meet their needs.
Under Saudi labour law, employers must pay compensation in the event of a death at work. Besix said it had taken steps to support Arshad’s family and ensure all payments were “handled in a timely and respectful manner”. Thousands of migrant workers, mainly from Bangladesh and Pakistan, have been working on the 47,000-seater Aramco Stadium.
There were claims last year that those employed there faced similar conditions to those allegedly faced by migrants who helped build the stadia for the last World Cup in Qatar.
Besix said it had “made significant strides” in protecting workers’ rights wherever it operated, adding that subcontractors were required to comply with welfare standards that “encompassed the full spectrum of workers’ welfare, from safety and wages to living conditions”.
“Our priority is to ensure that all workers are treated with dignity and fairness,” it added.
Aramco said the safety and wellbeing of employees was “our highest priority”. “The company follows industry best practices in managing and reporting incidents, including determining the facts, sequence of events and root causes,” it said in a statement.
Fifa has been approached for comment.
