At least 600 migrant workers employed by Saudi Arabian Baytur Construction Company have not received their salaries for at least eight months, Human Rights Watch said today. The actual figure of unpaid workers could be significantly higher. The workers at the US$26 billion Mecca-based Masar redevelopment project, funded by the nearly trillion-dollar Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), resorted to work stoppages and strikes as a last resort, based on media reports and interviews. Eleven migrant workers were detained and later released.
"The blatant wage theft against low-wage migrant workers by a company involved in a multi-billion-dollar project in Mecca speaks volumes about Saudi authorities' broken wage protection system," said Michael Page, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "These unpaid workers continue to face retribution, including intimidation and detention, for demanding their contractually owed wages."
In October 2025, Human Rights Watch conducted four interviews, including with two former Baytur migrant workers, one of whom is now back in their home country and owed more than 150,000 Saudi riyals (around $39,997) in unpaid wages and benefits, and with Turkish union officials. Human Rights Watch also reviewed media reports and social media posts and analyzed video clips related to the strikes. Many workers refused to be interviewed, fearing retribution from Saudi authorities.
Human Rights Watch wrote to Saudi Arabia's Human Resources and Social Development Ministry, Saudi Arabian Baytur, Umm Al Qura Development & Construction, and the PIF asking for more details and clarifications regarding the case. Only Saudi Arabia's Human Resources Ministry responded, stating that the case was detected by the ministry's inspection and wage monitoring mechanisms and that "corrective action was taken in coordination with the company, the affected workers, and their embassies."
Media reports and interviews indicated that Saudi Arabian Baytur stopped paying at least 600 construction workers, including people from Türkiye, India, Bangladesh, Egypt, and Pakistan, for at least eight months. Workers said they had been paid irregularly over the last two years and not paid anything in the last few months. Several workers were also working under what are known as azad (free) visas, a sponsorship arrangement in which their visa is not tied to Saudi Arabian Baytur, and the workers Humans Rights Watch spoke to said that the company was aware of this arrangement.
The Masar project is part of Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 strategic framework. Saudi Arabian Baytur is contracted by Umm Al Qura Development & Construction, which is partly owned by the Saudi Public Investment Fund.
In its response to Human Rights Watch, the Saudi Human Resources Ministry confirmed Saudi Arabian Baytur's noncompliance owing to "financial difficulties related to its operations" as detected by the "Ministry's inspection and wage monitoring mechanisms." The ministry stated that its Wage Protection System (WPS) "enables early identification of potential non-compliance, triggering inspection visits, the imposition of penalties, and other corrective measures in line with Saudi Labor Law."
"The last two years [of irregular pay] have drained the life out of me," one worker told Human Rights Watch. "Throughout this process, we were kept waiting, with excuses such as 'the money was coming,' 'it was stuck in the bank,' or there was a missing signature on the account."
Human Rights Watch reviewed media reports and verified a video posted online on September 7, 2025, showing workers striking at Saudi Arabian Baytur's labor camp in Mecca holding placards with messages such as, "Umm Al Qura [Development & Construction], pay our money," "Baytur officials, where are you?" and "SOS [a reference to a Morse code distress signal]." In the video, a Turkish migrant worker read a statement: "Right now, we are like exiles who cannot pay their debts, who cannot look their spouses and children in the face, who have lost their self-confidence."
Among the 11 detained workers, all but one of whom were visible in videos posted online during the strikes, 5 were detained for 48 hours and 6 for a longer period. "Some of our friends were handcuffed by police," one of those arrested said. "They accused us of shouting slogans and speaking out against the prince and against the Kingdom… Our phones were confiscated."
Another arrested worker said: "We didn't know that calling for a strike was a crime. They accused us of trying to overthrow the state… The handcuffs dug into our bones." The two workers said that the police delayed their release by two days despite a release order from a prosecutor who reviewed the video footage and concluded that the workers had not done anything wrong.
Saudi Arabia harshly restricts free expression and prohibits migrant workers from joining trade unions or worker committees, as well as prohibiting collective bargaining or strikes. The risk of detention has created an atmosphere of fear among workers, and only one of the affected workers still in Saudi Arabia was willing to speak with Human Rights Watch.
Saudi Arabia's extensive repression also impedes work by civil society, international trade unions, and media. "As a union, if it were another country, we would create more public awareness through actions, but we are concerned for our friends' safety," said Özgür Karabulut, general president of the Progressive Construction Workers Union (DİSK/Dev Yapı-İş), a Turkish trade union supporting the distressed workers, some of whom are its members. "Our struggle will continue until our friends get their money."
Human Rights Watch reviewed a document that detailed a seven-month repayment plan submitted by Saudi Arabian Baytur to Saudi authorities, though both union representatives and workers were skeptical the plan would be implemented. One former Baytur employee said that "a similar plan was prepared in 2023 [and not followed through with]," while another worker described it as "fake." Saudi Arabian Baytur did not respond to questions about the plan.
The Masar redevelopment project in Mecca is one of several high-profile wage theft cases in Saudi Arabia documented by Human Rights Watch. This includes wage theft cases at state-owned oil company Aramco's project sites in which the government itself acknowledged that a Saudi Aramco subcontractor was found in "non-compliance" as "detected through the Wage Protection System." Saudi Arabian Baytur, however, did not respond to Human Rights Watch.
In addition to group cases, Human Rights Watch has documented numerous individual cases of alleged wage abuses and contract violations, including in a 2024 report which documented violations linked to PIF-backed companies and projects, including NEOM and the Saudi Manpower Services Company (SMASCO). Saudi authorities, the PIF, NEOM, SMASCO, and others in the report did not respond to Human Rights Watch's queries.
In practice, Saudi Arabia's Wage Protection System has failed to ensure timely payment to workers and has instead worked, at best, as a monitoring system, since wage violations remain pervasive across the country. Even the monitoring role does not hold much practical relevance in the absence of authorities taking prompt action when alerted to nonpayment of wages. More generally, Human Rights Watch's research over the last several years in Saudi Arabia has indicated that migrant worker victims are rarely compensated and, even when they are, the repayment is often partial and can take years.
The Human Resources Ministry highlighted that the Expatriate Worker Wage Insurance Service enabled workers to "claim unpaid wages and obtain travel tickets for departure through the insurance company" and that "those who applied for the compensation have received their dues while others who filed judicial claims have had their cases registered in court." However, the ministry did not provide any details regarding the number of workers affected nor the number of claims submitted or resolved.
Moreover, under the current regulations of the Wage Insurance Service, wage recovery is capped at 17,500 riyals (around $4,663) and mandatory end-of-service benefits are explicitly excluded. Migrant workers who have spent years employed in Saudi Arabia could still lose tens of thousands of dollars in wages and end-of-service benefits under this policy even if the Wage Insurance Service partially reimbursed them for unpaid wages.
Saudi Arabia is undergoing a massive construction boom, including building 11 new and refurbished stadiums ahead of FIFA's 2034 World Cup. Ongoing wage theft cases should serve as a stark warning to FIFA and other companies expanding their businesses in Saudi Arabia that without concrete labor reform, their operations will be stained with gross human rights violations.
"Many migrant workers tolerate Saudi Arabia's extreme heat and harsh working conditions to support their families' well-being and their children's future prospects," Page said. "There is no excuse to deny these workers their rightfully owed wages."
