ALARMING evidence of exploitation has emerged from Amnesty International鈥檚 latest investigation of the Riyadh Metro project, laying bare a decade of abuse that migrant workers have suffered. The report shows how the Saudi Arabian infrastructure was built on labour practices that violated the rights and dignity of workers. Marketed as the backbone of Riyadh鈥檚 transport network, the metro drew on a labour force of an estimated 50,000鈥�65,000 people, employed through contractors, subcontractors and labour suppliers operating under government oversight. Amnesty International interviewed 38 people from Bangladesh, India and Nepal who worked on the project in 2014鈥�2025 and their accounts speak of illegal recruitment fees, punishing hours, unsafe sites and discriminatory, poverty-level wages. The report notes that many have already been pushed into debt even before leaving home, paying recruitment costs that breach both domestic and Saudi regulations. Once in Saudi Arabia, realities worsened. Earnings often fell below $2 an hour, overtime became unavoidable for survival and labourers toiled in extreme heat despite official mid-day work bans. Amnesty records widespread reports of passport confiscation, unhygienic living conditions, substandard food and a system of control.
The abuses detailed in the report point to a structural crisis rooted in the intersection of flawed recruitment practices, weak cross-border regulation and a sponsorship regime that continues to concentrate power in the hands of employers. For countries such as Bangladesh, the absence of stringent oversight over recruiters allows debt, deception and coercion to set in long before a worker reaches the Gulf. On the Saudi side, the persistence of the kafala framework, even in its modified form, restricts worker mobility and deters complaints, creating an environment for wage theft, excessive hours and unsafe conditions. The consequences are not only economic. Workers return home injured, indebted or traumatised. Entire families absorb the burden of loans taken to secure the jobs. Addressing this requires coordinated reforms. Origin countries should regulate and license recruiters rigorously, enforce caps on migration fees and provide strong pre-departure verification of contracts. Saudi authorities need to dismantle sponsorship structures that impede worker rights and expand enforcement mechanisms capable of scrutinising subcontracting chains. Anything less risks perpetuating a cycle in which migrant labour remains both indispensable and systematically devalued.
Bangladesh cannot continue to depend on a migration model built on debt, deception and diminishing returns, nor can destination countries be allowed to benefit from systems that strip workers of dignity and agency. What is required now is coordinated diplomatic, regulatory and multilateral pressure to ensure that protection is enforced and the economic partnerships Bangladesh enters into do not come at the cost of its citizens鈥� fundamental rights.
