Dubai’s Expo 2020 acknowledged on Saturday that five workers were killed at the site during construction world’s biggest fairFor the first time, the overall statistics of death toll workers have been disclosed.
The expo previously stated that its 200,000 workers who built the site worked approximately 240 million hours in its construction.
It previously did not offer any aggregate figures on workers’ deaths, injuries or coronavirus infection despite repeated requests from the Associated Press and other journalists.
The admission comes after the European Parliament last month urged the UAE not to participate in the expo, citing “inhuman treatment against foreign workers” that had worsened during the pandemic.
Ahead of the expo, businesses and construction companies are “forcing workers to sign unrelated documents, confiscating their passports, exposing them to excessive working hours in unsafe weather conditions, and providing them with unhygienic housing,” Sankalp said.
At a press conference a day after the event’s opening, expo spokesman Schonaid McGetchin said that information on the death was previously available to journalists and that journalists had been referred to a press release about the event, in which workers were forced to die. Who built the site from scratch, with no additional details. .
She said officials would provide more details about the casualties at a later, unspecified time.
Artists perform during the opening ceremony of Dubai Expo 2020 on September 30, 2021 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (AP)
McGatchin also acknowledged that officials were aware of cases of “withholding passports” from contractors and involvement in suspicious “recruiting practices” and workplace safety breaches at the site.
“We have taken steps to ensure that they are looked after and that there is a lot of interference in matters,” she said without elaborating.
The UAE, an oil-rich Sheikhdom that relies on low-wage migrant workers from Africa, Asia and Arab countries to keep its economy humming, has long faced criticism from human rights groups for treating those workers poorly. have to do.
But officials have struggled to project a positive image for the expo, the world’s first fair in the Middle East that seeks to showcase Dubai’s pride and attract millions of foreign visitors.
Workers in the UAE are barred from unionization and have few protections, often working long hours for low wages and living in substandard conditions.
Dubai’s early autumn heat proved dangerous even for visitors to the site on its opening day on Friday, with some tourists fainting in the 40 °C (104 °F) humid weather.
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