Crime and political thrillers that feel uncomfortably real.

FIFA has officially announced Saudi Arabia as the host of the 2034 World Cup, marking the second time the prestigious tournament will be held in a Gulf Arab nation and following Qatar in 2022. Saudi Arabia’s ambitious plans include building or renovating 15 stadiums, constructing over 185,000 hotel rooms, and executing massive infrastructure projects to welcome the mass influx of spectators.

However, this announcement has sparked widespread criticism, with Human Rights Watch (HRW) labeling the bid as a blatant example of “sportswashing.” By leveraging high-profile events like the World Cup, critics argue that the Saudi regime seeks to divert attention from its troubling human rights record, using sports to launder its international reputation while repression and authoritarian rule persist.

As someone who documented the abuses against migrant workers during Qatar’s 2022 preparations, this new plan for Saudi Arabia presents me with another reason to expose these persistent injustices. My work as a journalist and activist involved visiting construction sites where laborers toiled under scorching heat, denied basic rights like adequate breaks and humane living conditions. Those efforts not only led to articles and the publication of my books, Slave States and The Ambitious Struggle, but also resulted in my eventual expulsion from the region.

My ordeal began when my editor called me into his office, his face heavy with the burden of what he was about to say. “You’ve committed a grave sin” in the eyes of the UAE government, he said, referring to the book I had published without the government’s approval. The authorities were outraged, and they demanded that the newspaper terminate my employment and send me back to Uganda. Although the situation was dire, I felt a sense of gratitude when my editor managed to secure a one-month grace period for me — time to withdraw my children from school, surrender my apartment, and sell my car before I was forced to leave the UAE.

My book The Ambitious Struggle was primarily an autobiographical novel — though it did not solely recount my own story. It wove together the tales of countless migrants who, like myself, had ventured to the affluent Gulf states in search of opportunity. Across the world, migrant workers faced immense challenges, whether in Europe or America, but these struggles were particularly harrowing in the Gulf. The kafala system is a longstanding legal framework in Arab Gulf countries that gives employers near-total control over migrant workers’ employment and immigration status. This system often subjects workers — primarily from poor Asian and African countries — to exploitation and conditions resembling bonded labor, trapping them in cycles of servitude. This system, unchecked, stripped countless individuals of their dignity, forcing them into lives of hardship and submission.