The last remaining inhabitants of Al-Khuraiba village have been forced out of their home at gunpoint to make way for the gigantic Neom project being developed by the Saudi authorities. They include the mother and sister of Abdul Rahim al-Huwaiti, who was shot dead in 2020 by security forces for tenaciously and vocally opposing a wave of mass evictions at that time. These and other grave rights abuses that have accompanied the project from the start cast serious doubt on the case for the project to proceed, and on the suitability of the site as one of five host cities for the 2034 men’s World Cup.

Al-Khuraiba was one of several villages in the province of Tabuk in northwest Saudi Arabia where local residents, predominantly members of the Huwaitat tribe that had inhabited the region for centuries, were told in January 2020 that they were to be compulsorily evicted. The Saudi Public Investment Fund had acquired title to the whole area for the futuristic Neom mega-city project. Local people expressed strong opposition on social media and by signing a petition, but mass evictions began from March 2020. Security forces arrested scores of individuals who protested, and shot Abdul Rahim al-Huwaiti dead in his own home. No investigation has been carried out into the killing. 

When the last 15 or so houses in Al-Khuraiba were demolished in December 2023 and the remaining population evicted, only the family of Abdul Rahim Al-Huwaiti stayed put, refusing to leave while their menfolk remained in prison for peacefully opposing the evictions. The Neom administration wrote to the Ministry of Interior seeking their evacuation, and the request was forwarded to the Emirate of Tabuk, which summoned leading members of the Huwaitat tribe and pressed them to persuade Abdul Rahim’s mother to move out. 

After months of pressure failed, Saudi security forces entered Al-Khuraiba during the night of 16 June 2025. In the presence of local governor Mahmoud al-Harbi, they raided the deceased Abdul Rahim al-Huwaiti’s house, the last one standing in the village, and evicted its remaining residents at gunpoint. The village of Al-Khuraiba is now entirely uninhabited.

ALQST has closely documented how scores of those arrested for peacefully resisting their forcible displacement were later tried under the kingdom’s Counter-Terrorism Law, given prison sentences ranging from 15 to 50 years, and in some cases even sentenced to death. While dozens of arrested Huweitat tribe members including Abdullah Dakhil Allah al-Huwaiti (who was sentenced to 50 years) and Thamer Tayseer al-Huwaiti (20 years) have been released in recent months as part of a wider trend of prisoner releases, many others remain in prison, some on death row.

After the 2020 evictions the former residents fell victim to arbitrary and dishonest compensation policies; many did not receive the compensation they were promised. The authorities also rejected people’s requests to be resettled locally; many were forced to resettle at locations much further away, often in poorer neighbourhoods. Those who managed to resettle in small villages nearby were haunted by the possibility of being evicted once again. 

Arbitrary land seizures and forced displacement in violation of local people’s rights, as in the case of the Huwaitat tribe, are longstanding practices of Saudi Arabia’s authorities and have accelerated in recent years, most dramatically in the case of Neom and also Jeddah Central, another of the proposed host cities for the 2034 World Cup tournament. Large-scale evictions and demolitions in relation to the Jeddah Central development project began in October 2021 and continued until at least May 2022, affecting more than half a million people, with devastating human impact and associated violations of international human rights standards. 

The rights concerns surrounding Neom and other gigaprojects in Saudi Arabia, as highlighted in ALQST’s November 2024 briefing, go beyond land seizures and forced displacement to include the risk of widespread labour rights abuses and devastating effects on the environment. 

In light of the human rights abuses that continue to be committed against local inhabitants in the context of Neom’s construction, ALQST once again calls on the Saudi authorities to: 

• carry out a prompt and transparent inquiry into the evictions that have taken place; 
• provide mechanisms whereby those who have suffered violations can obtain justice; 
• address evicted residents’ immediate needs for accommodation and essential services; and 
• immediately and unconditionally release the remaining members of the Huwaitat tribe who were arbitrarily arrested for publicly criticising their eviction.

Furthermore, ALQST calls on investors and contractors involved in the Neom project to reflect on their responsibilities as laid down in the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs). We urge them to use all leverage at their disposal to call for the cessation of human rights abuses related to Neom, and specifically to call for the release of remaining arbitrarily detained members of the Huwaitat tribe.