Between March 2022 and June 2023, Saudi border guards have killed at least hundreds of Ethiopian migrants, refugees and asylum seekers who tried to cross the border between Yemen and Saudi Arabia, the international human rights organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report released Monday. The rights group states that these killings, which appear to be ongoing, would constitute a crime against humanity, if committed as part of a government policy to murder migrants.
The HRW report found that border guards in Saudi Arabia have used explosive weapons to kill many migrants and shot other migrants at close range, including many women and children, in a widespread and systematic pattern of attacks. In some instances, Saudi border guards asked migrants what limb to shoot, and then shot them at close range. Saudi border guards also fired explosive weapons at migrants who were attempting to flee back to Yemen.
“Saudi officials are killing hundreds of migrants and asylum seekers in this remote border area out of view of the rest of the world,” said Nadia Hardman, refugee and migrant rights researcher at Human Rights Watch.
“Spending billions buying up professional golf, football clubs, and major entertainment events to improve the Saudi image should not deflect attention from these horrendous crimes.”
The rights group interviewed 42 people, including 38 Ethiopian migrants and asylum seekers who tried to cross the Yemen-Saudi border between March 2022 and June 2023, and 4 relatives or friends of those who tried to cross during that period. Human Rights Watch analyzed over 350 videos and photographs posted to social media or gathered from other sources, and several hundred square kilometers of satellite imagery.
HRW said, while many Ethiopians migrate for economic reasons, a number have fled because of serious human rights abuses in Ethiopia, including during the recent, brutal armed conflict in the northern Tigray region.
Whereas the human rights organization has documented killings of migrants on the Yemen-Saudi Arabia border since 2014, the killings appear to represent a deliberate escalation in both the number and the manner of targeted killings
Migrants, refugees and asylum seekers interviewed, said they crossed the Gulf of Aden in unseaworthy vessels, Yemeni smugglers then took them to Saada governorate, currently under the control of the Houthi armed group, on the Saudi border.
People traveling in large groups described being attacked by mortar projectiles and other explosive weapons from the direction of Saudi border guards once they had crossed the border. All the victims “described scenes of horror: women, men, and children’s bodies strewn across the mountainous landscape severely injured, already dead and dismembered”, HRW said.
People traveling in smaller groups or on their own said once they crossed from Yemen into Saudi Arabia that Saudi border guards carrying rifles shot at them.
Human Rights Watch wrote to Saudi authorities about the serious allegations, but received no response. The Saudi Government did not respond Monday to requests for comment from several international media outlets.
In October 2002, United Nations independent human rights experts and special rapporteurs wrote to the Saudi Government concerning allegations of cross-border artillery shelling and small arms fire by Saudi security forces causing the deaths of up to 430 and injuring 650 migrants, including refugees and asylum seekers, in Saada governorate, Yemen, and Jizan province, Saudi Arabia, in the first four months of 2022.
In March 2023, the Saudi Government replied to the letter and denied the allegations, while the mass killings were reportedly ongoing.
In June 2023, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported that most deaths on land migration routes in the Middle East and North Africa region last year occurred in Yemen, where targeted violence against migrants had intensified. IOM said at least 795 people, believed to be mostly Ethiopians, lost their lives on the migration route between Yemen and Saudi Arabia in 2022, predominantly at the northern border.
Human Rights Watch called Monday on Saudi Arabia to "immediately and urgently revoke any policy, whether explicit or de facto, targeting migrants with explosive weapons and close-range attacks on civilian migrants on the border with Yemen."
Concerned governments should publicly urge Saudi Arabia to end such policies and press for accountability. In the meantime, governments should impose sanctions on Saudi officials. The rights group also called for a UN-backed investigation to assess abuses against migrants and whether killings amount to crimes against humanity.
“Saudi border guards knew or should have known they were firing on unarmed civilians,” Hardman said.
“If there is no justice for what appear to be serious crimes against Ethiopian migrants and asylum seekers, it will only fuel further killings and abuses.”
Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international human rights organization that investigates and reports on abuses of human rights around the world. Human Rights Watch was founded in 1978 as “Helsinki Watch,” when it began investigating human rights violations in countries that signed the Helsinki Accords. HRW researchers currently work in the field in 100 some countries. The non-governmental organization (NGO) is headquartered in the United States.
Further information
Full text: “They Fired on Us Like Rain” - Saudi Arabian Mass Killings of Ethiopian Migrants at the Yemen-Saudi Border, Human Rights Watch report, released August 21, 2023
https://www.hrw.org/report/2023/08/21/they-fired-us-rain/saudi-arabian-mass-killings-ethiopian-migrants-yemen-saudi