Activist groups, including Amnesty International and ALQST, have accused Saudi Arabia of forcibly displacing around 1.5 million people to make way for luxury hotels and entertainment venues.

The displaced Saudis have allegedly received no adequate compensation for the demolition of their old neighborhoods in the city of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

The Saudi Public Investment Fund, chaired by Crown Prince and newly appointed Prime Minister Mohammad bin Salman, announced the launch of “Jeddah Central” in December 2021.

Jeddah Central is a development project intended to include a museum, an opera house, a stadium, an aquarium, hotels, and new residential neighborhoods. It is part of Mohammad bin Salman’s Vision 2030 project.

The U.S.-based human rights group Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) claimed that while the Saudi regime is expected to spend more than $20 billion on the ambitious plan, very little of that amount has been allocated to compensate those who have lost or will lose their homes and livelihoods in Jeddah.

DAWN maintained that the forced displacements violate international law since the measures are incompatible with recognized legal principles that seek to guarantee and protect the population’s rights.

Saudi authorities have reportedly begun demolitions in roughly 60 different neighborhoods, and the demolitions are expected to continue, with more neighborhoods likely to be affected within the coming months.

“The authorities haven’t provided enough resources to relocate all the families,” a Jeddah resident said to France24. “City workers put up notices on certain buildings. The notices said, ‘You must move out in two days, three days, or a week.’ If people didn’t move out, they cut the electricity and threw their belongings into the street.”

According to Dana Ahmed, a researcher on Saudi Arabia for Amnesty International in Beirut, the government offered compensation for those who were evicted following international public indignation, but the compensation was only extended to Saudi citizens.

Saudi authorities have justified these demolitions by saying that the Jeddah Project will add an additional 47 billion Saudi riyals ($12.5 billion) to the nation’s economy by 2030. Officials say the project will also include rebuilding 17,000 residential units.

Officials have also suggested that the “slums” they are demolishing are “hotspots” of crime, drugs, and alcohol (prohibited in Saudi Arabia), which will be replaced with civilized, safe neighborhoods.

The Saudi government has recently taken a hard-line stance regarding development projects, and the Specialized Criminal Court recently sentenced three members of the Howeitat tribe to death for resisting their forced eviction and displacement.

Shadli, Atallah, and Ibrahim al-Howeiti were arrested in 2020 for speaking against the eviction of their tribe from the northwestern Tabuk region.

The displacement was authorized by the Saudi government in order to make way for the Mohammad bin Salman-backed Neom project — a $500 billion project that aims to serve as “a technological hub and tourist destination.”