Human Rights Watch (HRW), a prominent human rights organization, has accused Saudi border guards of killing hundreds of Ethiopian migrants and asylum seekers who tried to cross the Yemen-Saudi border from March 2022 to June 2023, with the killings continuing further.
In its latest report released on Monday, "'They Fired on Us Like Rain': Saudi Arabian Mass Killings of Ethiopian Migrants at the Yemen-Saudi Border," the organization said that border guards in Saudi Arabia fired machine guns and fired mortars at unarmed Ethiopians, including women and children, attempting to cross into the kingdom from Yemen.
"Saudi border guards have killed at least hundreds of Ethiopian migrants and asylum seekers who tried to cross the Yemen-Saudi border between March 2022 and June 2023 [...]. Saudi border guards have used explosive weapons and shot people at close range, including women and children, in a pattern that is widespread and systematic," read the report.
The rights watchdog further elaborated that these killings could be considered as a crime against humanity "if committed as part of a Saudi government policy to murder migrants."
Approximately 750,000 Ethiopians live and work in Saudi Arabia, with people migrating there due to both economic reasons and the humanitarian crisis caused by the recent armed conflict in northern Ethiopia. According to the report, most Ethiopian migrants use the "dangerous" migration route known as the "Eastern Route," which runs from the Horn of Africa across the Gulf of Aden, through Yemen, and into Saudi Arabia. This route is also used by migrants from other East African countries, including Somalia and Eritrea.
"Saudi officials are killing hundreds of migrants and asylum seekers in this remote border area out of view of the rest of the world," Nadia Hardman, refugee and migrant rights researcher at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.
HRW said it interviewed 42 Ethiopian migrants, who tried to cross the Yemen-Saudi between March 2022 and June 2023, or the friends and relatives of those who attempted to cross it. Moreover, the organization analyzed more than 350 videos and photos posted on social media or collected from other sources filmed in the last two years, as well as several hundred square kilometers of satellite imagery.
"These show dead and wounded migrants on the trails, in camps and in medical facilities, how burial sites near the migrant camps grew in size, the expanding Saudi Arabian border security infrastructure, and the routes currently used by the migrants to attempt border crossings," the report said.
Migrants told HRW that after they crossed the Gulf of Aden in unseaworthy and often overcrowded boats, Yemeni smugglers then took them to Saada governorate, which is currently under the control of the Houthi armed group, also known as Ansar Allah, on the border with Saudi Arabia.
The organization stated that many interviewees said Houthi forces control the entry and exit into migrant settlement camps and work with smugglers to control their stay in Saada. According to the UN, the Houthi-controlled immigration office "collaborates with traffickers to systematically direct migrants" to Saudi Arabia, bringing in $50,000 a week.
"Houthi forces would often extort bribes from the migrants or transfer them to what migrants described as detention centers where people were abused, until they could pay an exit fee," HRW said.
It was noted that migrants in groups of up to 200 regularly try to cross into Saudi Arabia, often making multiple attempts after being repelled by Saudi border guards. People who traveled in groups said they were attacked by mortar rounds and other explosive weapons from the direction of the Saudi border troops once they crossed the border.
In the final part of the report, HRW urged the Saudi government to revoke any policy targeting migrants with explosive weapons and "close-range attacks" on civilian migrants on the border with Yemen, while also prosecute security personnel responsible for shooting at migrants in the area, among other things.