When Saudi Arabia’s Vice Minister of Human Resources and Social Development for Labour, Abdullah Abuthnain, headed the Kingdom’s delegation to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Labour Centre executive council session in Baku earlier this September, the message was loud and clear: Saudi Arabia is keen on positioning itself as a labor reform leader. He talked about empowering youth, improving economic participation, digital transformation, and reinforcing social protection throughout the Islamic world.
These are, at first sight, admirable objectives. But they belie a profound contradiction between Saudi foreign policy words and the everyday experience of workers within the Kingdom. This is especially alarming because the nation is soon to host the 2034 FIFA World Cup, which will require enormous labor and subject millions of migrant workers to possible exploitation.
The world community cannot remain silent on this. Saudi Arabia is employing global forums like the OIC to buff up its image — but the facts indicate that labor abuse and human rights violations are endemic. Organizing the World Cup under these circumstances stands the risk of replicating, or even exceeding, the migrant worker disaster of Qatar 2022. That’s why a boycott of the Saudi 2034 World Cup needs to be taken very seriously.
Labour Rhetoric at the OIC: Image Management on the Global Stage
Saudi Arabia set itself up as a champion of cooperation and innovative employment policy during the OIC meeting. Abuthnain emphasized the need to continue cooperation efforts, embracing innovative labor policies, and providing sustainable opportunities for development among the member states. The Kingdom has also made repeated mentions of its Vision 2030 economic transformation, presenting reforms as inclusive and progressive.
Yet forums such as the OIC also have another function: they are platforms of international image-making. Talking about reform at multilateral forums, Saudi Arabia presents to global allies a modernized, worker-friendly image.
But within its borders, migrant workers — the backbone of its labor market, some 80% of the private-sector work force — remain subject to abuse, wage robbery, bad working conditions, and the inherent exploitation of the sponsor (kafala) system. This dichotomy reveals the flaw: Saudi Arabia is spending money on public relations, not on systemic change.
The Harsh Reality: Workers Still at Risk
Despite the promises of reform, conditions for migrant workers in Saudi Arabia are still grim. Several reports by Human Rights Watch (HRW), Amnesty International, and FairSquare outline the continuation of egregious abuses:
Workplace fatalities:
HRW has recorded hundreds of migrant workers killed in preventable accidents — falls from buildings, electrocution, and even beheading. Most are listed as “natural causes,” excluding families from compensation.
Theft of wages:
Thousands of workers report non-payment or late wages, leaving families at home in debt and destitution.
Kafala system legacy:
Saudi Arabia made promises of reform, yet workers still cannot switch jobs freely, and employers routinely take passports.
Heat risks:
Saudi Arabia’s summer midday work prohibitions are not enough. With increasing temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius, migrant workers continue to be at peril from excessive heat throughout lengthy outdoor shifts.
This is the secret of the labor world behind the slick orations at global conferences.
The World Cup Factor: Magnifying the Exploitation
The FIFA World Cup in 2034 will hugely increase Saudi Arabia’s labor demand. The event will need the building and renovation of a minimum of 15 stadiums, coupled with significant expansions in transportation, airports, hotels, and service sectors.
Estimates place the number of migrant workers Saudi Arabia might require to finish these projects in the hundreds of thousands. Under weak protections, this workforce will be subject to the same hazards already recorded: hazardous conditions, non-payment of injury and death compensation, and systematic abuses of rights.
The Qatar 2022 lesson is plain. In Qatar, mass abuse of workers provoked international outrage, underpinning limited reforms under duress. But Saudi Arabia’s system is bigger and more opaque. Unless FIFA and the world step in to insist on binding assurances, the 2034 World Cup could be the greatest display of labor abuse in sporting history.
Numbers That Tell the Story
These statistics belie the message Saudi Arabia puts across at global events such as the OIC:
- 80% of Saudi Arabia’s private-sector labor force are migrant workers, mostly from South Asia and Africa.
- Dozens of workplace fatalities were documented by human rights groups in 2022 and 2023 alone, many of them attributed to risky construction conditions.
- The World Cup will demand over 185,000 new hotel rooms, along with extensive urban infrastructure expansions — all constructed primarily by migrants.
In spite of reforms, Saudi Arabia continues to prohibit autonomous labor unions, and workers have no collective organization to negotiate rights or protections.
Why Boycott is the Sole Responsible Choice?
Saudi Arabia’s attendance at the OIC meeting reveals the manner in which the Kingdom speaks correct words on the global stage, yet remains inactive within. The contrast could not be more glaring:
At the OIC:
Saudi Arabia talks of empowerment and sustainable development.
At home:
Migrant workers are exploited, killed, and have their rights abused.
Until Saudi Arabia shows us actual reforms — ending the kafala system in practice, guaranteeing wage protection, enacting real heat protection, permitting unions, and holding employers responsible — the world should not grant its words any legitimacy.
A boycott of the 2034 FIFA World Cup would be a clear message: international football cannot be founded upon exploitation. Sponsors, supporters, and national teams have to assume their moral duty. As campaigns pushed Qatar to make reforms, international solidarity can stop Saudi Arabia from hiding behind smooth orations while perpetuating abusive habits.
Between Speeches and Reality
The OIC labor session put the spotlight on Saudi Arabia’s bid to rebrand itself as a champion of labor reform. But for the migrant workers who drive its economy, nothing changes: risky working conditions, unpaid wages, abuse, and no voice.
With the 2034 FIFA World Cup looming, the stakes are higher still. The Kingdom wishes to welcome the world, but unless there are urgent reforms, it will welcome on the backs of abused workers.
To supporters, sponsors, and FIFA too, silence is complicity. The world has to act now. A boycott of the Saudi 2034 World Cup is more than a protest against sportswashing — it is a stand for the workers’ dignity and rights whose lives shouldn’t be made expendable.