Firms involved in Neom have been warned by a new human rights report that they should consider the “political and reputational risks” of association with the new megaproject in Saudi Arabia.
Neom is the flagship project of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 development plan to diversify the country’s economy and culture away from oil and gas and plans to turn the barren desert into an ultra-modern city and tourist hotspot for a million people.
Plans include The Line metropolis, which plans show would stretch for 106 miles through the desert, and a mountain ski resort. Estimates put the project’s total cost from £387bn ($500bn) to £1.16trillion ($1.5tn).
However, pressure has been building for the country’s authorities to address that a wide range of abuses are being perpetrated.
A recent ITV documentary said that 21,000 migrant workers have died in Saudi Arabia since the start of Vision 2030 in 2016. Saudi Arabia’s National Council for Occupational Safety and Health, however, called this “misinformation”.
Now, ALQST, a human rights group established in 2014 by Saudi Arabian activist and former Saudi Air Force officer, Yahya Assiri, has published a report: “Neom: A human rights and environmental impact assessment”.
The body said it produced the report based on both first-hand and open-source information, to fact-check the claims being made for Neom, New Civil Engineer reported.
Its purpose is to “highlight its human rights and environmental impact, and point out the political and reputational risks for those involved or considering involvement in this mega-enterprise”.
While Neom is pitched as a “a world-leading reimagination of sustainable living for the future”, ALQST called crown prince Mohammed bin Salman out, saying Neom “is creating an aura of Saudi modernity and globalism that is being used to consolidate the personal authority of its author, Mohammed bin Salman, and lend a spurious legitimacy to his repressive one-man rule”.
The report also directly addresses businesses involved in the megaproject, saying: “Neom should be seen as an overambitious vanity project that presents both human rights and environmental challenges. A number of senior staff working on Neom have resigned over unrealistic specifications and the absence of the expertise and transparency required to bring the project to life.”
It urges engineering and construction firms, including Mott MacDonald, Jacobs and Aecom, to reconsider their position, but said that if they must continue, they have “significant potential leverage to call out human rights abuses, as completion of the project will not be possible without foreign investment and support”.
“In light of the human rights abuses already being committed in the preliminary phases of Neom’s construction, as well as the adverse environmental impacts that its full realisation would entail,” the report continued, “investors and contractors involved in the project are urged to use all leverage at their disposal to call for the cessation of human rights abuses related to Neom, and specifically to call for the release of members of the Huwaitat tribe who have been wrongfully imprisoned.”
Express.co.uk has contacted Neom, and Mott MacDonald, Jacobs and Aecom for comment.
