In October 2025, the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre (the Resource Centre) launched its new report, '“We were treated as if we were machines”: Migrant workers powering Saudi Arabia’s energy transition', analysing working conditions for migrants employed on renewable energy projects Saudi Arabia.

Grounded in interviews with Nepali and Bangladeshi workers, the report found a litany of human rights violations across nine renewable energy projects in Saudi Arabia, with over half of interviewees experiencing five or more indicators of forced labour. The report also analysed the human rights commitments of companies with business connections to the projects, and the responsibilities of banks financing the projects. Read the full report here.

Forty-one companies were included in the report due to their business connections to five named projects. This includes:

• Seven companies linked to abuse through supply chain connections: ACWA Power, the Public Investment Fund, Saudi Aramco, NEOM and Air Products are developers on at least one of the five projects. These companies selected construction and engineering contractors, Larsen & Toubro and/ or PowerChina, to construct elements of the renewables projects, which then employed migrant workers – either directly or through subcontractors – in abusive working conditions. Most interviewees were employed in the supply chain of Larsen & Toubro.
• Nine companies working on the projects, but workers were not interviewed in their supply chains. These companies were included due to their presence on their project, and hence exposure to risk: Saudi Electricity Company and NEOM contracted Hitachi Energy and Saudi Services for Electro Mechanic Works to develop NEOM’s energy transmission system; SPG Steiner and local partners MAN Enterprise and Almajal Alarabi Group were contracted to construct ammonia storage tanks at NEOM; Thyssenkrupp and De Nora partnered in a joint venture to engineer and maintain NEOM’s water electrolysis modules; and Archirodon is building an ammonia jetty at NEOM
• Twenty-five banks financing the projects named in the report: Standard Chartered, Riyad Bank and Mizuho Financial Group (financed all five projects); Banque Saudi Fransi, Saudi National Bank, HSBC and Saudi Awwal Bank (financed four projects); Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, Arab Petroleum Investments, First Abu Dhabi Bank and Korea Development Bank (financed two projects); and Abu Dhabi Commerical Bank, Al Rajhi Bank, Alimna Bank, Bank Al Bilad, Bank Aljazira, BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole, DZ Bank, Emirates NBD, JPMorgan Chase, KfW, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Natixis, and The Norinchukin Bank (financed one project).

Ahead of the report's launch, the Resource Centre invited these companies to respond to the report's findings. Additionally, the Resource Centre invited companies with supply chain connections to abuse and financiers to disclose any steps they will take to investigate the abuses and ensure timely remediation.

By the time of the report's publication, responses were received from 15 companies: BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole, De Nora, DZ Bank, Hitachi Energy, HSBC, KfW, Larsen and Toubro, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Mizuho Financial Group, SPG Steiner, Standard Chartered, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, The Norinchukin Bank, and Thyssenkrupp. Their responses can be read in full below.