The human rights organization Human Rights Watch raises serious allegations against Saudi border officials. They are said to have killed hundreds of Ethiopian migrants trying to enter the country from Yemen.
The human rights organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) has reported hundreds of shootings of Ethiopian migrants and asylum seekers since March last year. Saudi border officials are said to have killed them trying to cross the Saudi-Yemeni border. People are said to have been shot at close range – including children, as can be read in the report. Explosive weapons were also said to have been used.
The period between March 2022 and June 2023 was examined in the publication. Analysis by HRW indicated the killings were continuing. Eyewitnesses reported to the organization of piles of dead bodies along the migration route.
Official representatives of Saudi Arabia have so far left inquiries from the AFP news agency about the allegations unanswered, and according to HRW, Riyadh has not responded.
Last year, UN experts reported “worrying allegations” that Saudi Arabian security forces had killed around 430 migrants on the border with Yemen in the first few months of 2022.
“They shoot continuously”
According to the new information, the allegations are based on 38 witness interviews as well as satellite images and images published on online networks. At least 28 “incidents with firearms” – including attacks with mortar shells – emerged from the statements alone. According to HRW, the incidents occurred in large part after a ceasefire in Yemen’s civil war, in which Saudi Arabia is a party, that came into force in April 2022.
“When the Saudi security officers see a group (migrants), they shoot continuously,” one of the survivors told the workers. According to estimates by the human rights organization, the Saudi officials killed hundreds – “possibly thousands” – of people in the border area.
Asylum seekers and migrants said the route between Yemen and Saudi Arabia was “riddled with abuse” and under the control of human traffickers. Despite the civil war, people still come to Yemen with the aim of reaching neighboring Saudi Arabia.
Left MP calls for a change of course
Looking at the report, Clara Bünger, a left-wing member of the Bundestag, called for the federal government to change course with regard to its relationship with Saudi Arabia. “Anyone who claims that feminist foreign policy is important is losing their credibility if they support states like Saudi Arabia with weapons that barbarously shoot people at their borders,” Bünger told the Table Media publishing house.
In particular, the decision made by the federal government in 2020 to have Saudi Arabian border police officers trained again by the federal police was “a big mistake,” Bünger continued. It must now be clarified “whether any German-trained forces were involved in the mass shootings and human rights violations”. This cooperation – like arms exports to Saudi Arabia – must be stopped.
Increased proportion of women and girls in migration
According to estimates, far more than 90 percent of the migrants on the “dangerous eastern route” – from the Horn of Africa via the Gulf of Aden through Yemen to Saudi Arabia – come from Ethiopia. According to HRW, this route is also used by people from Somalia, Eritrea and occasionally from other East African countries.
In recent years, the proportion of women and girls migrating on the eastern route has increased. Since the end of 2014 there has been a conflict in Yemen between the government, the Houthi rebels and their allies. Saudi Arabia is fighting in Yemen against the Iran-backed Houthis, who overran the country in 2014 and control large parts of the north.
The United Nations regards the conflict in Yemen as a humanitarian catastrophe that has brought the country to the brink of famine.