According to a report released by Amnesty International on Friday, at least three people have died in detention centres in Saudi Arabia where thousands of Ethiopian immigrants are being held in “unimaginably cruel” conditions.
The non-governmental organisation called on Riyadh to release the migrants and facilitate their return to their home country in coordination with Ethiopian authorities.
“Thousands of Ethiopian migrants who left their homes in search of a better life have faced, instead, unimaginable cruelty everywhere,” explained Marie Forrester, researcher and consultant on refugee and migrant rights at Amnesty International.
Forrester also urged the Saudi authorities to: “Release all arbitrarily detained migrants immediately, and work on improving their detention conditions before more lives are lost.”
According to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), more than 500,000 Ethiopians were residing in Saudi Arabia before the launch of a security campaign against irregular migrants in 2017.
The Saudi authorities have been expelling 10,000 Ethiopians per month ever since, until Ethiopia this year requested the suspension of deportations amid the spread of the coronavirus.
The IOM documented the presence of nearly half a million Ethiopians in Saudi Arabia, before the kingdom authorities decided to launch a campaign against illegal immigrants in 2017.
Fasil Aregay is a Journalist, who works as Editor and fact-checker at Addis Media. He is a graduate of Journalism & Communication (Broadcast Journalism) from Addis Ababa University, a Creative and driven journalist with 4+ years of experience in broadcast and digital media.
