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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Pete Pattisson

‘Many migrant workers will die’: the likely human cost of awarding the 2034 World Cup to Saudi Arabia

Two small children look on as people gather round a coffin lying on the ground outside next to a house.
People gather in a Bangladesh village for the funeral of Shahadat, a migrant worker who died in Saudi Arabia, December 2023. All photographs by Pete Pattisson Photograph: Pete Pattisson

When Shahadat set out for Saudi Arabia from his village in Bangladesh, he was driven by a single purpose: to earn money for his impoverished family. “If he sent money home, his family would eat. If he didn’t, they wouldn’t,” says a relative.

For years he just about scraped by, sending a little money home each month and trying to pay down the huge debt he took on to afford the illegal fees a recruitment agent had charged him to get to Saudi Arabia.

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