ITV Exposure goes undercover in Saudi Arabia

ITV Exposure looks at “Illegal and dangerous working conditions” at Saudi ruler Mohammed bin Salman’s flagship project…

As Saudi Arabia bids to host the World Cup in 2034, a female journalist goes undercover for ITV Exposure to reveal what life is under its controversial ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. For the first time ever the programme reveals evidence of illegal and dangerous working conditions at the most high-profile development project in Saudi Arabia.

The Kingdom’s controversial ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is spending trillions to transform his country and its international image. Kingdom Uncovered: Inside Saudi Arabia exposes the disturbing reality behind his transformation.

The undercover journalist hears from workers on The Line, a futuristic 100-mile car-free city with a million residents, to be built in a straight line, that is currently under construction in the Saudi desert. The Line was launched by Mohammed bin Salman in 2021 and is closely associated with him.

Saudi law says workers should never do more than 60 hours a week. But a worker who has been helping to build a high-speed train tunnel for two years tells the reporter he regularly works up to 16 hours a day. Saudi law also says that workers should normally get one day off a week. But the worker says it’s “normal” to work for 14 days without a day off.

Speaking anonymously, the worker says: “We’re made to work extremely hard. There is little time to rest. We get tired. We suffer from anxiety day and night. Saudi doesn’t care much for citizens from other countries. We are treated like beggars.” His testimony is supported by accounts from five other workers.

The film includes rare footage of conditions from construction sites along The Line, as the Saudi authorities carefully manage the media’s coverage of the project. The Line is part of a wider project called NEOM, which also includes a ski resort, vast industrial area and luxury island for tourism. Mohammed bin Salman is the chairman of the NEOM Board of Directors.

Some NEOM workers tell her they are working up to 84 hours a week – much more than the legal maximum. A driver says: “The drivers have to work non-stop. We travel back and forth for four hours and don’t get paid for it. We don’t get enough rest. Because of the continuous work and travel, they barely get four hours sleep. This lack of sleep has caused many accidents. There have been many. Just last month there were four or five cases.”

Nicholas McGeehan, director at human rights organisation FairSquare, said: “These working hours are way beyond what the international minimum standards permit. The reality is that workers all over Saudi Arabia are subject to deeply abusive and dangerous exploitation. The abuses are systematically happening across the country.”

The allegations in the film were put to the Saudi Government, but it did not reply.

In a statement NEOM said: “We are assessing the claims made in this programme and, where required, will take appropriate action. We require all contractors and subcontractors to comply with NEOM’s Code of Conduct, based on the laws of Saudi Arabia and the policies of the International Labour Organization, and they are subject to frequent inspections of their workers’ living and working conditions.”

21,000 foreign workers have died in eight years.

NEOM is part of a wider project to transform Saudi Arabia’s economy, which was launched by Mohammed bin Salman eight years ago. Vision 2030 includes plans for more than a dozen mega-projects worth trillions of dollars, such as new cities in the desert, connected by a state-of-the-art transport system, five new airports, and the world’s tallest skyscraper. Migrant workers make up three quarters of Saudi’s workforce and are crucial to Mohammed bin Salman’s ambitious plans for Vision 2030.

But new exclusive figures reveal that 21,000 foreign workers from India, Bangladesh and Nepal have died since Vision 2030 was launched. New data from Nepal’s Foreign Employment Board suggests that a third of the 2,000 deaths of Nepali workers over that period are apparently unexplained.

The film tells the story of one such worker, a man from Nepal called Raju Bishwakarma, who died in Jeddah after his family and colleagues say he was refused proper medical treatment by his Saudi employer. Raju’s death sparked a violent protest against the “carelessness” of the company by his fellow workers, some of whom burned down buildings. The protest was captured on camera. Footage like this is rare because protest is illegal in Saudi.

The Saudi authorities said Mr Bishwakarma’s cause of death was “cardiac and respiratory arrest for unknown reason”. His father Bharat asks: “Why wasn’t there an investigation by the company? What kind of hospital is it where a patient dies without any diagnosis of disease? He’d been unwell for two months.”

Nicholas McGeehan from FairSquare says: “One of the key reasons why we do not know why migrant workers are dying in Saudi Arabia is that death certificates are marked with things like ‘natural causes’ or ‘cardiac arrest’ or ‘acute respiratory failure’. These terms don’t actually explain how someone has died. Cardiac arrest just means your heart stopped. It doesn’t say how or why your heart stopped. We still don’t know how they’re dying. We know what the risks are. You know, we know that the heat and humidity… abusive living and working conditions, inability to access the health care system. All of these things combine to to quite drastic effect.”

Nepali human rights lawyer Anurag Devkota says: “Migrant workers are leaving this country every day, for a better future for their family members and a better future for their country. But in return, what we are getting is the dead bodies in the wooden boxes.” The journalist also films with foreign labourers, some of who say they have not been paid by their employer for 10 months and now depend on donated food to live. Over 100 workers are living in a workers’ camp without electricity or water for most of the time. The company they are working for has more than a dozen Government contracts.

“The company has our passports, and just don’t give them back. So, there’s no work and they don’t give us our money,” says one worker. “We feel trapped like slaves. We’re desperate to see our wives and kids,” another says. “His child was getting married. He pleaded with them to let him go but they didn’t. If someone’s father dies, they won’t let them go. If someone’s child dies, they won’t let them go. We are living a suffocating life here.”

In 2021, the Saudi government said it had reformed labour laws to prevent the sort of abuse these men say they’re suffering.

The workers will only speak anonymously – and for good reason. Elsewhere another worker tells the reporter he was jailed after complaining about similar treatment on social media. “My tweet went viral, They said my tweet was not okay. That here in Saudi, that’s forbidden. They took away my mobile phone and shut down my social media account,” the man says. His colleagues say: “That’s why we don’t share things on Facebook. We’re all scared.”

The film includes the first TV interview with the sister of a Saudi fitness instructor who was jailed for over a decade after posting in favour of women’s rights on social media. Manahel Al-Otaibi was sentenced in 2024 to 11 years in prison by a counterterrorism court over tweets she’d sent in favour of women’s rights and images of herself she’d posted wearing clothes that the authorities said were “immodest”.

Her sister Fawzia, who lives in Edinburgh and is seeking asylum, describes how in March 2018, Mohammed bin Salman spoke in favour of women’s rights and said on TV that he didn’t mind women going out without wearing the abaya in public provided their clothes were decent and respectful. Encouraged by his reforms, the sisters called for more reforms. But as they began to attract attention, they discovered some in the government disapproved – Fawzia says: “Government officials started coming to visit my parents telling them, ‘Stop your daughters. If they speak out, we’ll need to take the necessary measures as they’re spreading dissent across the homeland.’ That’s when we realised there’s danger in women’s rights activism.”

Fawzia describes how she was called in by the police and threatened with prison after she posted a video of herself dancing at a music festival in Riyadh. “They said my dancing was ‘sexually suggestive’ and ‘indecent’. Words that really don’t describe the reality of the situation. A happy girl excited at a party… turned into a crime,” she says. Fawzia decided to leave Saudi, but Manahel stayed and continued to campaign for women’s rights.

In 2022, Manahel was called in by the police, handcuffed and taken to Al-Malaz Prison in Riyadh. “The family is heartbroken, especially since this was happening over something considered permissible by the state. I realise now that the changes weren’t real. It was just propaganda for the foreign media but I found out too late.” Fawzia says that she’s heard her sister “is being starved, that Manahel has become skin and bone.”

Manahel told her family at the end of September that she’d been stabbed in the face in prison, and required stitches. Her family say they tried to report the attack to the Saudi authorities but were ignored.

Saudi Arabia is the sole bidder for the rights to host the World Cup in 2034. FIFA is due to announce the winner in December.

Nicholas McGeehan says: “The notion that you would award a high-profile tournament like the World Cup to a country where these very serious abuses are endemic and structural is appalling. It shouldn’t be considered. It shouldn’t even be on the table.”

FIFA told the programme human rights is a “priority area when it comes to evaluating World Cup bids”.

ITV Exposure – Kingdom Uncovered: Inside Saudi Arabia, Sunday 27th October, 22:15pm on ITV1 and STV