WWhen Shahadat set off from his village in Bangladesh to Saudi Arabia, he had only one goal: to make money for his impoverished family. “If he sent money home, his family would eat. If he didn’t do it, they wouldn’t do it,” said a relative.

For years, he barely made ends meet by sending a little money home each month and trying to pay off the huge debts he took on to pay the illegal fees a recruiter charged him to enter Saudi Arabia had invoiced.

Then everything started to unravel. An employer failed to renew his residence permit, making him an illegal worker. His health began to deteriorate, but his irregular status meant it would have been difficult to access medical care.

He found it difficult to find work. Instead of sending money home, he had to take out more loans to survive. He was so desperate that he took jobs on construction sites and received nothing but food and board.

And then his journey came to an abrupt end. “One day I called him and his roommate told me that he was sleeping,” says Shahadat’s wife Rojina. “When they tried to wake him up, they discovered he was dead.”

Shahadat’s death was one of several stories we shared with the Guardian this year as we investigated the high number of unexplained deaths of Bangladeshi migrant workers in Saudi Arabia.

In 2022, an average of four Bangladeshis died in the country every day. It is unclear whether this mortality rate is in the expected range given the number of Bangladeshis in Saudi Arabia – about 2 million – but the bold plans for the World Cup in 2034 are likely to sharply increase demand for workers like Shahadat .

In recent months, numerous human rights groups have raised concerns about alleged mistreatment of migrant workers and the risks of awarding the World Cup to Saudi Arabia. Amnesty International said: “Migrant workers will be exploited and many will die.”

The current death toll was revealed late last year at Dhaka International Airport, where distraught and confused families came to collect the coffins containing the bodies of their loved ones, which were being transported on trolleys from the cargo depot.

Shahadat’s coffin was transported from the airport by ambulance to his village, about three hours’ drive from Dhaka. It was late at night when it arrived, but a crowd of more than 100 people still stayed up to receive it. Every household in their village had sent someone abroad to work, and so the death of one weighed heavily on all of them.

It’s a scene that repeats itself with shocking frequency in villages and towns across Bangladesh. According to the Bangladesh government, at least 13,685 Bangladeshis died in Saudi Arabia between 2008 and 2022. Most deaths appear to be unexplained and unexplained, making it difficult to determine underlying causes.

Experts have pointed out that the harsh living and working conditions faced by many workers are likely contributing factors. “I think the mental pressure of not having the right documents, not having a job and dealing with debts all contributed to his death,” says Rojina.

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Saudi Arabia is a nation powered not only by oil but also by cheap labor. They come by the millions from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Nepal and beyond. They will build the promised 11 new stadiums, transport networks and 185,000 hotel rooms. Without them there would be no World Cup.

Saudi Arabia’s human rights strategy, presented as part of its World Cup bid, includes a long list of steps it says it will take to strengthen protections, including “mandatory social standards.”

But testimonies from Bangladeshi workers who have returned home suggest that abuse is deeply rooted in the Gulf kingdom. At the arrival gate at Dhaka airport late last year, men like Abu Raihan showed up in complete shock. He was one of nearly 70,000 Bangladeshis deported from Saudi Arabia in 2022, largely because they did not have a valid residence permit.

They are rounded up on the streets and taken to detention centers, where they are usually held for one to two weeks before being sent home. They bring back stories of shocking treatment and abuse; False contracts, unpaid wages and massive recruiting debts.

Raihan says he had to sell his land to pay the 430,000 taka (£2,800) recruitment fee and secure his work visa in Saudi Arabia. He says he was promised a two-year contract, but after 90 days his company did not renew his visa.

With no work and no food, Raihan went to the police to complain, but instead of helping him, they took him to a detention center, he claims. “My employer made me illegal, but the police didn’t take action against him.”

Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development stated that there are “strict regulations and standards to protect workers’ rights” and that it “repatriates only those proven to have violated work and residence regulations in the kingdom, after all legal action.” “Measures have been taken to check their violations and coordinate with the embassies of their countries”.