Migrant workers, including Nepalis, who worked in the Riyadh metro project, were exploited during the construction, according to an Amnesty International report.

The report said they were forced to pay exorbitant recruitment fees, worked in dangerous heat and earned pitiful wages during a decade of serious abuse.

Promoted as the “backbone” of Riyadh’s public transport system, the newly opened metro was built by leading international and Saudi firms under government direction and is slated for further expansion.

The report “Nobody wants to work in these situations”: A decade of exploitation on the Riyadh metro project that documents labour abuses in the Gulf’s largest country, says a large number of workers were charged illegal fees to secure work and then endured long, arduous hours in sometimes unsafe conditions for minimal, discriminatory pay.

“Beneath the sleek exterior of the metro lies a decade of abuses enabled by a labour system that sacrifices migrant workers’ human rights. Already burdened with exorbitant recruitment fees, these workers endured punishing hours for meagre wages,” Marta Schaaf, programme director for Climate, Economic, Social Justice and Corporate at Amnesty, was quoted in the report.

The workers’ hardships, as per Schaaf, were compounded by exposure to extreme heat in a country where temperatures are soaring thanks to human-induced climate change.

“That such abuses persisted for years across multiple companies on a flagship infrastructure project exposes a glaring failure by the government to enforce protections and dismantle a system that leaves workers at high risk of exploitation.”

The finding is based on an interview with 38 men from Bangladesh, India and Nepal who were employed by a range of foreign and Saudi companies—including main contractors, subcontractors and labour suppliers—that constructed the Riyadh Metro system between 2014 and 2025.

As per the finding, the abuse started before they left home when they were asked to pay between $700 and $3,500 in recruitment fees and associated costs to agents in their home countries, forcing many into serious debt and exacerbating their exposure to further abuse.

These payments often far exceeded the limits set by origin country governments and were demanded of the men despite Saudi law prohibiting worker-borne recruitment fees.

Suman, a worker from Nepal, had to sell his wife’s jewellery to pay Rs100,000 ($700), which is around three times his monthly salary. “I paid 100,000 rupees to the manpower agent. But during the preparatory work—travel, medical tests, and other paperwork—I spent a total of 200,000 rupees ($1,400). I didn’t have money with me at that time… I borrowed some gold from my wife’s parents, sold it, and got some cash… As the price of gold increased, I paid almost double that. It took me six months to pay off the loans,” he was quoted in the report.

Even after paying an exorbitant fee, many workers were paid between $1 and $2 per hour as labourers, cleaners, and office assistants on the Riyadh Metro project. They worked over 60 hours a week.

While most of the workers said they were not directly forced to work overtime, their basic salaries were so low that they felt they had no other option.

“Due to the inflation in Nepal, this salary is too little to pay for household expenses. It vanishes as I pay for my children’s education and other household expenses. But what could I do? I have to manage,” Nabin was quoted in the report.

The long hours workers spent on the Riyadh Metro project were often intensified by the unrelenting heat, with some describing the situation as like being “in hell”. With temperatures often remaining at least 40°C for more than eight hours each day during the summer months, the government’s ban on outdoor working in the direct sun from midday to 3 pm proved totally inadequate protection for workers. And temperatures are set to rise, as Saudi Arabia faces increasingly frequent and intensifying heat, a trend expected to worsen with global human-induced climate change.

“When I work in the extreme heat, I feel like I’m in hell… I think—How did I end up here? Did I commit anything wrong so that God is punishing me?” another worker, Indra, was quoted in the report. “Nobody wants to work in these situations by their choice. But what can I do? I didn’t have a job in Nepal. I came here to support my family. So, I must be ready to suffer.”

The exploitations, as per Amnesty, not only show the Saudi government’s failings but also the high-risk environment in which companies, including the multinational companies, operate.

“Countries of origin, including Bangladesh, India, and Nepal, must take responsibility for protecting their nationals by monitoring, investigating, and sanctioning the illegal conduct of recruitment agencies. Without proper accountability across all countries involved, the cycle of abuse will persist,” said Schaaf.