The organizers of the Expo in Dubai publish that the construction of the world exhibition cost three workers their lives. 72 others were seriously injured.
Dubai – Three workers were killed during the construction work for the World Expo in Dubai, according to official information from the organizers. 72 other workers were seriously injured during the construction of the Expo site, the Expo announced on Saturday (October 2nd, 2021). According to Deutschlandfunk, this is the first time that the organizers have released information on deaths among their workers.
The huge exhibition area in a suburb of Dubai was built by more than 200,000 workers who, according to the organizers, worked 247 million hours. The organizers declared that the welfare and safety of the workers were “the highest priority” for the expo. The safety standards were therefore at “world level”.
The expo was officially opened on Thursday evening, and the first visitors streamed onto the site on Friday. The seven billion dollar trade fair was postponed last year due to the corona pandemic and therefore continues to bear the title Expo 2020. Exhibitions on technological innovations from over 190 countries and 25 million visitors are expected until the end of March 2022.
Expo in Dubai: EU Parliament called for a boycott
The United Arab Emirates and other Gulf states such as Qatar, where the soccer World Cup will take place in 2022, are repeatedly criticized for human rights violations and poor working conditions for migrant workers from South Asian countries.
Although the European Parliament has called on its member states to boycott the Expo because of the human rights situation in the Emirates, Germany is represented at the fair with Campus Germany. In the German pavilion, which will be opened on Sunday by Development Minister Gerd Müller (CSU), innovations on the topics of mobility and sustainability will be presented. (slo with afp)
