Migrant workers who travelled to Saudi Arabia to work on the Riyadh Metro project were forced to pay exorbitant recruitment fees, worked in dangerous heat and earned pitiful wages during a decade of serious abuse, Amnesty International revealed in a new report today.

The 42-page report - “Nobody wants to work in these situations”: A decade of exploitation on the Riyadh Metro project - documents labour abuses on one of Saudi Arabia’s flagship infrastructure projects. Promoted as the “backbone” of Riyadh’s public transport system, the newly opened metro was built by leading international and Saudi firms under government direction and is slated for further expansion. However, many of the workers Amnesty interviewed were charged illegal fees to secure work and then endured long, arduous hours in sometimes unsafe conditions for minimal, discriminatory pay.

Exploited even before they left home

Amnesty spoke to 38 men from Bangladesh, India and Nepal who were employed by a range of foreign and Saudi companies – including main contractors, subcontractors and labour suppliers – constructing the Riyadh Metro system between 2014 and 2025. For nearly all, the abuse started before they left home, when they were asked to pay between USD 700 and USD 3,500 in recruitment fees and associated costs to agents in their home countries, forcing many into serious debt and exacerbating their exposure to further abuse.

These payments often far exceeded the limits set by origin country governments and were demanded of the men despite Saudi law prohibiting worker-borne recruitment fees.

Suman, from Nepal, was forced to sell his wife’s family’s savings in gold to afford the exorbitant fees for a job paying a basic salary of just USD 266 each month:  

“I paid 100,000 rupees (USD 700) to the manpower agent. But during the preparatory work – travel, medical tests, and other paperwork – I spent a total of 200,000 rupees (USD 1,400). I didn’t have money with me at that time… I borrowed some gold from my wife’s parents, sold it, and got some cash… As the price of gold increased, I paid [back] almost double for that. It took me six months to pay off the loans.”

A catalogue of abuses in Saudi Arabia

Once in Saudi Arabia, many workers were paid less than USD 2 per hour, while others earned barely half of that in their roles as labourers, cleaners and office assistants on the Riyadh Metro project. Virtually all worked 60+ hour weeks. While most of the workers said they were not directly forced to work overtime, their basic salaries were so low, they felt they had no other option. The government’s failure to set a universal living wage entrenches low pay among migrant workers – most of whom are racialised - denying many a decent standard of living.

“Due to the inflation in Nepal, this salary is too little to pay for household expenses. It vanishes as I pay for my children’s education and other household expenses. But what could I do? I have to manage,” Nabin told Amnesty.

The long hours workers spent on the Riyadh Metro project were often intensified by the unrelenting heat, with some describing the situation as like being “in hell”. With temperatures often remaining at least 40°C for more than eight hours each day during the summer months, the government’s ban on outdoor working in the direct sun from midday to 3pm proved a totally inadequate protection for workers. And temperatures are set to rise, as Saudi Arabia faces increasingly frequent and intensifying heat, a trend expected to worsen with global human-induced climate change.

“When I work in the extreme heat, I feel like I’m in hell...I think - How did I end up here? Did I commit anything wrong so that God is punishing me?” said Indra, from Nepal. “Nobody wants to work in these situations by their choice. But what can I do? I didn’t have a job in Nepal. I came here to support my family. So, I must be ready to suffer.”

Janak, from India, said he faced pressure by more senior staff at the subcontractor he worked for, to work in the extreme heat.

“The foremen and engineers would force us to work overtime even in hot temperatures. We would say, ‘We can’t. It’s extremely hot.’ But they would say, ‘keep working’... What can poor people do? We have to work. We have to do a difficult job.”

Many workers also reported facing other abuses, such as passport confiscation, overcrowded and unsanitary living conditions, poor-quality food, and discriminatory treatment based on job rank.

Systematic reforms and heightened human rights diligence urgently needed

The experiences of these men underscore not only the Saudi government’s failings but also the high-risk environment in which companies – including large multinationals – operate in when they decide to do business in Saudi Arabia’s construction sector, which depends heavily on a vast subcontracting network.

Indeed, despite limited reforms, the kafala system persists in practice. Combined with weak enforcement of labour protections – including inspections that focus more on compliance with Saudization targets and the legality of migrant workers’ employment status than on safeguarding their rights - and the recent reduction of penalties for abusive labour practices, this creates a permissive climate for exploitation. This context demands that companies proactively undertake heightened human rights due diligence to prevent any human rights harms. Such efforts are severely constrained in Saudi Arabia, where human rights are systematically repressed, and freedom of expression and association are effectively non-existent. If companies are unable or unwilling to assess and address any risks, they should consider not undertaking the activity.

Marta Schaaf, Amnesty International’s Director for Climate, Economic Social Justice and Corporate Accountability, said:

“The Riyadh Metro is hailed as the backbone of the capital’s transport system, yet beneath its sleek exterior lies a decade of abuses enabled by a labour system that sacrifices migrant workers’ human rights. Already burdened with exorbitant recruitment fees, these workers endured punishing hours for meagre wages.

“Their hardships were compounded by exposure to extreme heat in a country where temperatures are soaring thanks to human-induced climate change. That such abuses persisted for years across multiple companies on a flagship infrastructure project exposes a glaring failure by the government to enforce protections and dismantle a system that leaves workers at high risk of exploitation.

“As Saudi Arabia pushes ahead with high-profile giga-projects, including the 2034 World Cup, the authorities must completely dismantle the kafala sponsorship system and rigorously enforce labour laws in line with global human rights standards. Strengthening safeguards and ensuring accountability for the millions of migrant workers who make these ventures possible is the only way to ensure they are no longer treated as disposable.

“For companies operating in or entering Saudi Arabia, these findings should serve as a clear warning: comprehensive human rights due diligence is not optional. Without robust processes in place early on and an adequate plan to address any human rights concerns, businesses risk being directly linked or contributing to systematic labour abuses.

“Finally, countries of origin, including Bangladesh, India, and Nepal, must take responsibility for protecting their nationals by monitoring, investigating, and sanctioning the illegal conduct of recruitment agencies. Without proper accountability across all countries involved, the cycle of abuse will persist.”