Saudi Arabia wants a repeat of the Qatar World Cup - little or no accountability over the treatment of migrant workers. The Arab Kingdom is not shy to intimidate unions to get a current complaint at the International Labour Organization (ILO) dropped.
By Sam Kunti
“It’s intimidation,” Joel Odigie tells Josimar. The secretary general of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) Africa does not mince his words towards Saudi Arabia and its recent alleged conduct toward the powerful union that represents 191 million workers around the globe. In a recent report, Saudi Arabia singled out Odigie by name, which he argues is part of a larger pattern of intimidation.
Why is Saudi Arabia allegedly intimidating a union leader eight years before holding the World Cup? In a complex web of bureaucratic procedures and legal arguments, the Arab Kingdom is already maneuvering to spin the narrative around migrant workers and labour reforms ahead of the 2034 tournament, a World Cup that will require construction of infrastructure on a monumental scale. To do so, they are taking a leaf out of Qatar’s playbook.
Mustafa Qadri of NGO Equidem explains: “Saudi Arabia is trying to speed-walk us towards where Qatar eventually went, claiming, with the support of the ILO, that kafala had ended. Do you know the movie Groundhog Day, where a man repeats the same thing over and over again? It sounds a lot like the previous World Cup and the run-up to it.”
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