Photo credit: Daily Mail
A migrant worker has died while working on a new stadium being built for the 2034 World Cup.
The Guardian reports that Muhammad Arshad, a Pakistani, fell to his death from an upper level during the construction of the Aramco Stadium in the eastern city of Al Khobar on 1 March, according to sources with knowledge of the incident.
The first-known death of a migrant worker linked to the 2034 World Cup, the incident comes three months after the Gulf kingdom was named host of the tournament by FIFA.
The move was fiercely opposed by human rights groups, which warned of the risks migrant workers would face on World Cup construction sites.
Arshad’s death was confirmed by Besix Group, a Belgian construction multinational, whose subsidiary Six Construct is one of the main contractors at the stadium.
After his death, workers were allegedly called to a meeting and ordered to delete any video coverage of the incident and not to talk to anyone about it, according to a source who was present.
Aishad’s corpse has been flown back to Pakistan where his coffin was buried near his home in the north-west of the country
