"Saudi Arabia: Neom workers speak of '16-hour work days' in ITV undercover film,"

Labourers are forced to work gruelling hours far beyond legal limits to construct the flagship project of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman’s Neom megacity, according to a new ITV documentary.

One worker said that he regularly works 16-hour shifts, 14 days straight to build "The Line", the 170km straight-line city being constructed in northwestern Saudi Arabia...

But on top of the long shifts, workers told an undercover reporter that they must take an unpaid, three-hour bus commute to get to the desert site and back which leaves them with around four hours to sleep.

“We’re made to work extremely hard. There is little time to rest. We get tired. We suffer from anxiety day and night,” one worker said.

“Saudi doesn’t care much for citizens from other countries. We are treated like beggars.”...

Another worker, who filmed from inside the cage of a digger as he lifted piles of rocks and dirt, said employees “work non-stop”.

“We don’t get enough rest,” he said. “This lack of sleep has caused many accidents. There have been many. Just last month, there were four or five cases.”

Nicholas McGeehan, director at the UK-based human rights organisation FairSquare, said the working hours of the labourers at The Line were "way beyond what the international minimum standards permit".

"The reality is that workers all over Saudi Arabia are subject to deeply abusive and dangerous exploitation. The abuses are systematically happening across the country," McGeehan said...

Neom told the filmmakers that it was assessing the claims made in the documentary and would take appropriate action where it was required...