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

By ISABEL DEBRE
Associated Press

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Dubai’s Expo 2020 has 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 acknowledged that its 200,000 laborers who built the site worked some 240 million man-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 Saturday comes after the European Parliament last month urged nations not to take part in the Expo, citing the United Arab Emirates’ “inhumane practices against foreign workers.”