Nepali Workers Describe Abuse on Aramco Projects in FairSquare Report
FairSquare released a report on aramco-linked projects that says Nepali migrant workers were pushed into 12- to 14-hour days in temperatures above 50 degrees Celsius, housed in unsafe accommodation and denied enough rest and food. The findings focus on Saudi Aramco’s supply chain, where workers said injury and death could leave families without adequate compensation.
Kamal on Aramco-linked work
Kamal, a Nepali worker, said he paid Rs150,000 for a hotel job before arriving in Saudi Arabia in 2023 and being sent to a construction project linked to an Aramco gas plant. He said his passport was taken on arrival. “We thought we would get decent jobs after going abroad, but the reality was completely different,” he said.
“Our passports were confiscated as soon as we arrived. We were forced to work up to 12 hours a day under the scorching sun.” Kamal said he worked under that schedule before leaving Saudi Arabia after 10 months. He also said, “I saw many co-workers collapse at the worksite because of the heat. Working outdoors became unbearable. I left Saudi Arabia after 10 months,” placing a personal account behind the report’s broader claim that heat was not a one-off hazard but a routine part of the job.
Marjan Increment and Jizan
Workers on Aramco’s $21 billion Marjan Increment project said temperatures in June and July regularly exceeded 50 degrees Celsius. One worker said, “Many people collapsed because of the heat. Their bodies simply stopped functioning.” The report says water shortages added to the strain, and that workers who fainted were often left to recover without help.
In Jizan, one worker described seeing a colleague collapse while walking. “A vehicle arrived, water was splashed on him, and he was taken to an air-conditioned room,” the worker said. Another worker added, “When workers faint, they are left unattended in their rooms.” Those accounts point to a system in which the immediate response depends on location and supervisor, not on any single company statement in the chain.
Dammam pipeline years
Prasad, a Nepali worker from Gorkha, said he spent 13 years on a pipeline project linked to a gas plant in Dammam. “Safety officers told us to take a 15-minute break after an hour of work, but the foremen forced us to keep going,” he said. After years in extreme heat, he said, “After years of working in extreme heat, my health deteriorated. I developed kidney disease.”
The report places those accounts inside a subcontracting network tied to Saudi Aramco, which it describes as sprawling and hard to police. It says Aramco has more than 10,000 supplier companies operating within Saudi Arabia, and around 20 percent of Nepali workers employed in Saudi Arabia’s construction sector are estimated to work on such projects. With that many layers between the worker and the company name on the project, the central pressure now sits on labor accountability, compensation claims, and whether the reported conditions change for the next group sent abroad.
FairSquare’s report has already turned private complaints into a public record. For Nepali workers considering similar contracts, the crucial facts are now on the page: the job can differ from what was promised, passports may be taken on arrival, and heat on Aramco-linked sites can push workdays past 12 hours. The next step belongs to those who recruit, subcontract, and decide who gets paid when a worker falls ill or dies.
