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December 16, 2020
Saudi Arabia detains hundreds of migrants in inhuman and degrading conditions at a deportation center in Riyadh, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a new report alleging that guards have also tortured and beaten detainees.
The US-based rights monitor said most of the migrants at the facility are from Ethiopia and were arrested for not having valid residence permits in Saudi Arabia. The report, released Tuesday, is based on phone conversations last month with seven Ethiopian migrants detained in central Riyadh, as well as with two Indian men who were held there prior to deportation.
Interviewees said they were kept for months in squalid, overcrowded rooms with up to 350 more migrants. Overcrowded conditions and a lack of soap or showers increased the risk of spreading the coronavirus in the detention center, interviewees said, adding that some detainees showed symptoms of COVID-19.
A video posted by HRW showed migrants huddled in a room with no room to stretch their legs, some sleeping on the floor next to toilets or piles of garbage.
Migrants also described guards beating detainees or assaulting them with rubber-coated metal bars. More than half of those interviewed said they had seen other detainees beaten so badly that they were taken out of the room and never seen again. A 27-year-old man from Ethiopia told investigators that he had witnessed the murder of three detainees.
“Saudi Arabia, one of the richest countries in the world, has no excuse to detain migrant workers in dire conditions, amid a health pandemic, for months,” said Nadia Hardman, refugee and migrant rights researcher at HRW .
“The video images of people crowded together, allegations of torture and unlawful killings are shocking, as is the apparent unwillingness of the authorities to do anything to investigate the conditions of abuse and hold those responsible to account,” he said.
HRW was unable to independently verify the allegations of torture and killings, but asked the Saudi government to investigate. The group also called on Riyadh to only detain migrants as a last resort and to allow experts to inspect its detention and deportation facilities.
Over the last decade, hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians have emigrated, undertaking the dangerous journey across the Red Sea to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states in search of work. According to the United Nations, the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, Jordan, and Lebanon were home to some 35 million migrants in 2019, many of whom took jobs as construction workers, maids or babysitters.
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