First migrant worker death at Saudi World Cup stadium

A migrant worker has died while working on a new stadium being built for the 2034 World Cup.

- Pete Pattisson, Imran Mukhtar, Redwan Ahmed

Muhammad Arshad, from Pakistan, fell to his death from an upper level during the construction of the Aramco Stadium in the eastern city of Al Khobar on 12 March, according to sources with knowledge of the incident. His death is the first known death of a migrant worker linked to the 2034 World Cup and comes just three months after the Gulf kingdom was named the host by Fifa.

The move was fiercely opposed by human rights groups, which warned of the risks migrant workers would face on World Cup construction sites, with Amnesty International saying: "Migrant workers will face exploitation and many will die."

Arshad's death was confirmed by Besix Group, a Belgian construction multinational, whose subsidiary Six Construct is one of the main contractors at the stadium.

"A team of three workers was engaged at height when the platform they were working on tilted. While all three were equipped with personal fall-arrest systems, one worker was not connected to an anchor point at the time of the incident and fell, sustaining severe injuries," the company said in a statement. Emergency services were immediately called, but "the worker sadly succumbed to his injuries in hospital".