Dubai Expo 2020 offers conflicting figures on worker deaths

By ISABEL DEBRE
Associated Press

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Dubai’s Expo 2020 has offered conflicting figures for how many workers had been killed on site during construction of the massive world’s fair, first saying five and then later three. Expo refused for months to publicly provide any figures for construction-related casualties in the run-up to the $7 billion fair rising from the desert outside Dubai, designed the burnish the city’s reputation abroad. The inconsistent statements Saturday come as the event and the United Arab Emirates as a whole long has faced criticism from human rights activists over the poor treatment of the low-paid migrant labor that keeps the country’s economy humming.