Kathmandu, Nov. 19 -- A sleek symbol of Saudi Arabia's modern ambitions, the newly opened Riyadh Metro is now under fire following a damning Amnesty International investigation that reveals a decade of exploitation of the migrant workers who helped build the project.

In its new report, "Nobody wants to work in these situations": A decade of exploitation on the Riyadh Metro project, Amnesty details how migrant labourers from Bangladesh, India and Nepal were subjected to illegal recruitment fees, punishing heat, poverty wages and a catalogue of degrading conditions between 2014 and 2025.

Despite Saudi Arabia's public celebration of the Metro as the "backbone" of Riyadh's transport transformation, the report paints a starkly different pict...