ALQST documents "first death of a migrant worker on a Neom site"

Human rights organisation ALQST has highlighted the environmental and human rights concerns surrounding Saudi mega project Neom in a briefing paper that includes a report on a migrant worker's death.

Named Neom: a human rights and environmental impact assessment, the briefing document was created to give companies working on the project, or considering working on the project, information about the reported human rights and environmental concerns.

"This briefing seeks to factcheck the Neom PR machine and inform businesses engaged in or considering involvement in the project of the serious risks, urging them to use the leverage at their disposal to speak out against the related rights abuses," ALQST project officer Celia Le Noe told Dezeen.

"Our research indeed reveals many additional concerns, from labour rights abuses, highlighted by the death of a worker on a construction site, to the devastating environmental impact," she continued.

Neom being used to create "an aura of Saudi modernity"

ALQST produced the document as it believes that the project is being used to improve the standing of Saudi Arabia and its de facto leader, crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, and deflect from the country's wider issues.

"Current proposals, if brought to fruition, will create a dystopian urban environment and ecological catastrophe," said Le Noe.

"And even before the project's realisation, Neom is creating an aura of Saudi modernity and globalism that is being used to consolidate the personal authority of its author, Mohammed bin Salman, and lend a spurious legitimacy to his repressive one-man rule."

The briefing document draws attention to human rights concerns that have been highlighted by ALQST and others, including forced evictions and migrant worker conditions.

The conditions of migrant workers in Saudi Arabia were recently highlighted in an ITV documentary, which stated that there have reportedly been 21,000 migrant worker fatalities in the country since the Saudi Vision 2030 projects began eight years ago.

"At every stage since his death, they have failed to act sufficiently"

The briefing document contains a report on Pakistani civil engineer Abdul Wali Skandar Khan, who reportedly died on a Neom construction site after a guardrail collapsed. According to the human rights organisation, it is the "first death of a migrant worker on a Neom site" that has been documented.

According to the report, "neither the companies nor the Saudi authorities carried out a proper investigation" into the death and Abdul Wali Skandar Khan's brother Meer Wali Khan had to travel to Saudi Arabia to recover the body at his own expense.

"The companies and Saudi authorities have treated my brother with callous disregard," Meer Wali Khan told ALQST.

"At every stage since his death, they have failed to act sufficiently, causing me and my family even more pain and hardship. As such, our quest for answers and justice continues, for Abdul Wali and others who have suffered a similar fate."

Dezeen approached Neom for comment on the report.

Along with human rights concerns, the document also aims to highlight the environmental impact of the project and accuses the Saudis of greenwashing, stating "Neom is symptomatic of a wider effort by the Saudi authorities to greenwash their environmental impact".

The report concludes with an appeal for those companies working on Neom to use their influence to "call for the cessation of human rights abuses related to Neom".

Set in northwestern Saudi Arabia, Neom is one of the world's largest and most controversial developments and includes the 170-kilometre-long The Line mega city.

Earlier this year Dezeen asked if it was time for architecture studios to walk away from the project, following mounting human rights concerns.

It followed reporting by the BBC alleging that Saudi forces permitted the use of lethal force to clear land for the project, with human rights organisation ALQST drawing attention to reports that three men forcibly evicted from the Neom site were sentenced to death in 2022.

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