A computer visualization of “The Line”: The designers imagined the project’s flagship building as a “sidecraper” – a skyscraper lying on its side.Image: neom
Saudi Arabia is building skyscrapers in the desert on an area as large as Belgium. Beyond the staggering financial investment, this futuristic city project costs an enormous amount of human lives.
Matti Hartmann / t-online
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Construction work on the futuristic “Saudi Vision 2030” project has already reportedly cost the lives of 21,000 workers from Nepal, Bangladesh and India. This is the figure put forward by a documentary by the British television channel ITV. And it matches data already collected by others. In spring, the Guardian had indicated that the Bangladesh government had counted 1,502 deaths of its nationals working on the construction site in 2022 alone.
The Saudi “Vision 2030” was announced in 2016 by Prince Mohammed bin Salman and includes many major projects. The flagship project was named “The Line”: a skinny city 170 kilometers longbut only 200 meters wide. Nine million people are expected to one day live in this metropolis that stretches across the desert, in a huge building 500 meters high. According to plans, there should be a supersonic metro that would take just 20 minutes to get from one end of the city to the other.
Medieval methods for a “better future”?
“The Line” is part of the gigantic “Neom” new city project, which is to cover a total area of 26,500 square kilometers, almost the size of Belgium. On the Internet, Saudi Arabia is full of praise for this project. Everything must become ultra-modern, enable a CO2-free circular economy and create a “better future”.
But according to human rights organizations, the kingdom has chosen medieval methods to achieve this. The Saudi authorities would have authorized the murder of Bedouins who are to be forcibly moved for the project, the BBC reported in May.
The construction site of “The Line” on a satellite image (May 2023) and a photo (July 2023).Image: GC Satellites/ Google via Soar, Giles Pendleton via LinkedIn
“Please save me”
The workers say they are not paid, that they are treated like slaves. In the ITV documentary, for example, a worker says that he regularly works sixteen-hour days – for fourteen days in a row.
“We work non-stop”
Another worker in the report filmed by ITV
According to him, lack of sleep causes many workplace accidents. Another worker turned to his friends and family to plead:
“Please save me”
Shortly afterwards, this man was found dead. He had previously been told he could only leave Saudi Arabia if he paid a sum equivalent to five months’ salary, it was reported. Officials in Saudi Arabia have promised to look into the accusations.
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Translated and adapted from German by Léa Krejci
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