Saudi Arabia border guards accused of mass killings of migrants

A new report by Human Rights Watch has accused Saudi Arabia of mass killings of migrants on the Yemeni route. According to the report, hundreds if not thousands of migrants, most of them Ethiopians escaping a war-torn country, were killed in indiscriminate firing and explosions.

The report is based on interviews of over 38 Ethiopian migrants and their family members who tried to cross into Saudi Arabia between March 2022 and June 2023. The report also said that the killings were taking place even as the report was being compiled. HRW also said they analysed hundreds of photos, videos, and satellite imagery to come to conclusions. 

Chilling details

The report titled They Fired On Us Like Rain, tells in graphic detail about the migrants' fraught journey from Ethiopia, through Yemen, and finally at the border with Saudi Arabia.

• Photos, videos, and satellite imageries analysed by HRW showed burial sites near migrant camps growing in size, the expanding Saudi Arabian border security infrastructure and mounting evidence of dead and wounded migrants on the trails. 

• Migrants described Saudi border guards often patrolling with rifles, in "cars" mounted with what looked like rocket launchers and cameras tracking the movement of migrants on street lamps. 
• Witnesses described migrant groups of 5 to hundreds being attacked by mortar projectiles and other explosive weapons from the Saudi Arabian side, once they had crossed the border from Yemen. 
• These firings or attacks would often go on for several hours to even days. 
• Survivors described the area being strewn with bodies of women, men, and children, some severed, others injured or already dead. 

• Saudi border guards would approach the survivors after the attack ended and detain them for several months.
• In other instances, survivors were asked which limb they would like to be shot at or were beaten up with metal rods. 
• One 17-year-old boy told HRW that Saudi border agents forced him and other survivors to rape two girl survivors and executed those who refused to comply. 
• The number of casualties is hard to estimate or count. But according to HRW, at least 655 migrants were killed at the hands of Saudi border guards between March 2022 and June 2023. But the actual numbers is estimated to be much higher.

• Others recounted how there were 150 migrants in one group crossing and only 7 survived that day. 

What it means

• Human Rights Watch, which previously documented migrant killings at Yemen and Saudi Arabia border,  says the killings seem to be a "deliberate escalation". 

• HRW says if the killings are systematic and widespread they would account for crimes against humanity, and part of a state policy to deliberately murder a civilian population.
• The migrants face a harrowing journey to finding stability as the migrant route is rife with abuses. Much of the migrant route in Yemen is controlled by Houthi rebels who have also been accused of torturing, extorting, murdering, and raping migrants. 

With regards to Saudi Arabia, it has previously refuted allegations of mass killings saying that they have no evidence of it happening whatsoever. While the oil-rich nation continues to be accused of violating human rights at home and abroad, it has also sought to distract the world from the accusations by hosting a range of international events from Formula One motorsport to purchasing Newcastle United, an English Premier League Football team.