South Asian migrant workers building renewable energy projects in Saudi Arabia face exploitation and labour abuses, including excessive hours, high recruitment fees and average monthly salaries of just $370, a report published by a global rights organisation showed on Thursday.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest crude oil exporter, is investing heavily to become a major player in the global clean energy transition and hit net zero by 2060, seeking to reduce its economic dependence on oil as the world shifts away from fossil fuels.

But as the kingdom races to transform its economy with solar and green hydrogen projects, the migrants building them are exposed to abusive hiring practices, low pay, excessive working hours, unsafe conditions and have no way to seek redress, according to the report by the London-headquartered Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC).

The researchers interviewed 31 Nepali and three Bangladeshi workers from nine renewables projects, including solar farms and the NEOM Green Hydrogen Project…

More than half of them reported suffering wage theft, such as deductions for taking breaks…

“One of the most alarming patterns of abuse was heat exposure,” said Catriona Fraser, the report’s lead researcher, adding that the abuses they had identified appeared to be “systemic and exacerbated by the structure of the industry”…