For first time, Dubai Expo 2020 says 5 workers died on site | Entertainment

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Dubai’s Expo 2020 on Saturday acknowledged that five workers had been killed on site during construction of the massive world’s fair, revealing for the first time overall statistics for worker fatalities.

Expo previously said that its 200,000 laborers who built the site worked some 240 million hours in its construction. It had not offered any overall statistics previously on worker fatalities, injuries or coronavirus infections despite repeated requests from The Associated Press and other journalists.

The admission comes after the European Parliament last month urged nations not to take part in Expo, citing the United Arab Emirates’ “inhumane practices against foreign workers” that it said worsened during the pandemic. Ahead of Expo, businesses and construction companies are “coercing workers into signing untranslated documents, confiscating their passports, exposing them to extreme working hours in unsafe weather conditions and providing them with unsanitary housing,” the resolution said.

At a press conference a day after the event’s opening, Expo spokesperson Sconaid McGeachin claimed the information about fatalities was previously available but did not elaborate. The AP previously had repeatedly asked for the information and received no response from the Expo.