Riyadh's Golden Metro Built on Decade of Labor Abuse
The New Arab exposes the Riyadh metro project, built on the backs of migrant workers from India, Nepal, and Bangladesh, who endured endemic abuse for over ten years. We're told Saudi Arabia is 'reforming.' (Perhaps 'reforming' how effectively they suppress dissent and exploit labor.) This isn't groundbreaking news; human rights groups have documented such conditions for decades. Yet, Saudi Arabia
remains a favored regional partner, flush with U.S. arms deals and diplomatic goodwill, regardless of its 'modernization' efforts resting on a foundation of documented human misery. One might wonder if the outcry would be louder, or the diplomatic consequences swifter, if said abuses weren't committed by a regime buying billions in U.S. weaponry. (According to the Stockholm International Peace
Research Institute, the US supplied 79% of Saudi Arabia's arms imports between 2018-2022.) How many 'strategic partnerships' require ignoring modern-day slavery?