As the countdown for the 2030 world cup hosted in Portugal, Morocco, Spain, and Argentina continues moving closer to its deadline, decisions for hosting the next cup in 2034 has been confirmed.
Saudi Arabia, the victors, are now facing backlash from human rights groups stating the harsh risk of migrant workers for the Cup. Many former citizens of Saudi state the harsh reality of the country’s laws that violate human rights entirely. An article from Amnesty International goes on to report the reasons Saudi Arabia violates their human rights on a daily basis. The report explains, Saudi’s executions have increased. Authorities state on average in the year 2022, 196 people including men and women were sentenced to the death penalty and were executed that same year.
While government officials still haven’t touched base on this issue, they go on to talk about the chances of change the World Cup could potentially have for freedom and rights for women which is something of a concern to most citizens. According to the article, women are extremely discriminated against. The male guardianship system was even placed as a law in 2022 stating that a woman requires a male legal guardian and has no choice on who it is. Unfortunately, no new statements have been made about this potential change and freedom for women in Saudi leading up to the Cup. However, the backlash does express the worry about migrant workers during the games.
Migrant workers, according to the Interior Ministry, are mistreated immensely. 479,000 migrants being returned back to their home country out of the 678,000 arrested, migrant workers are being punished for wanting to live better lives. Most migrants are forced to flee from either Ethiopia and or Yemen due to violence. Border police arrest the migrants who cross the border from Yemen to Saudi Arabia therefore making it impossible for people to come into the country. An article from Human Rights Watch states the deportation stations in Riyadh are holding hundreds of migrant workers, mainly Ethiopians, in conditions so degrading they amount to ill-treatments. Guards at these very stations are witnessed to beat and torture these said migrants with rubber coated metal rods that led to at least three allegations of deaths in custody between October and November.
While government officials in Saudi have yet to comment on the terrible dehumanization they are allowing in their country, the 2034 World Cup will be seeing its debut in Saudi Arabia. The money on tickets is to be determined in the next year although one never knows what may happen in the next 10 years.
