A report on the mass killing of migrants and asylum seekers provoked strong reactions in several countries on Monday evening. The US calls for an investigation, Germany condemns. – We urge the Saudis to fulfill their international obligations, says a spokesperson for the US State Department to the AFP news agency. – We have raised the allegations with the Saudi authorities. The German news agency DPA has spoken to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Berlin. – We are very concerned about the serious allegations in the report, says a spokesperson for the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, writes DPA. The report by Human Rights Watch claims that Saudi Arabian border guards are behind the mass killing of Ethiopian migrants and asylum seekers on the border with Yemen over the past year. According to HRW, Saudi border soldiers have killed many migrants. Photo: Hasan Jamali / AP The human rights organization emphasizes that it is about “at least hundreds” in the period between March 2022 and June 2023. Saudi Arabia rejects the accusations. Read what the authorities respond later in the case. HRW calls for a full UN investigation. The World Organization is very concerned. – The UN is very concerned. The report raises some very serious allegations, says UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric to AFP. He further says that the UN human rights organization has started an investigation. Shot at close range The organization claims that many tens have been shot at close range, including several women and children. Some are said to have been asked which part of their body they wanted to be hit in, before they were shot. The attacks are referred to as systematic. – They shot at us like rain. When I think about it, I cry, says a 20-year-old woman from the Oromia region of Ethiopia, who is interviewed in the report. – I saw a man shouting for help. He lost both his legs. He screamed. He said: Are you leaving me here? Please don’t leave me! We couldn’t help him because we were running for our lives. “Sports laundering” and murders The HRW report claims that the murders take place in secret at the same time as Saudi Arabia spends billions on sports events that will make the country appear in a better light – so-called “sports laundering”. – Saudi Arabian officials are killing hundreds of migrants and asylum seekers in this remote border area, far from the eyes of the world, says Nadia Hardman, researcher at HRW. Saudi Arabia’s strongman, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Photo: STRINGER / AFP – The fact that Saudi Arabia is spending billions to buy up professional golf clubs, football clubs and major entertainment events to improve the image of Saudi Arabia should not take the attention away from these terrible crimes, says Nadia Hardman. – If this is committed as part of a Saudi Arabian policy of killing migrants, then these killings, which seem to continue, will be a crime against humanity, writes the human rights organization in a press release on Monday. Amnesty: – Should be a wake-up call – Saudi Arabia has in recent years invested insanely large resources in improving its international reputation, says senior adviser at Amnesty International Norway, Ina Tin to news. – The revelations of the grotesque treatment of Ethiopian migrants and asylum seekers should be a wake-up call for everyone who has allowed themselves to be dazzled by the Saudi image of brilliance, says Ina Tin. The report to HRW is important documentation of Saudi Arabia’s lack of respect for the right to life, continues the senior adviser at Amnesty. – Heartbreaking, but not surprising Ina Tin thinks the report to HRW is heartbreaking, but still not surprising. – Amnesty itself has documented how in recent years the authorities in Saudi Arabia have kept many thousands of illegal Ethiopian migrants imprisoned indefinitely and under inhumane conditions awaiting forced return to Ethiopia, says Tin. Senior adviser Ina Tin at Amnesty Norway. Photo: Morten Holm / NTB Amnesty has documented the conditions in two prisons, in Riyadh and near Jeddah. Ina Tin says that there the Ethiopians were kept in cells that were so overcrowded that they had to sleep in shifts in totally unhygienic conditions where diseases developed. – Even sick children and pregnant women did not get enough food or drink, and received no health care. Former prisoners said that they were tortured after protesting against prison conditions and when they tried to get a doctor for a sick fellow prisoner. The senior adviser estimates that more than 30,000 Ethiopian nationals are still being held in such conditions in prisons in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia refutes The BBC writes that the Saudi authorities say they take the accusations seriously, but that the UN’s description that the killings are systematic and on a large scale, is not true. – The kingdom has not discovered evidence or information that can confirm the accusations, reports Saudi government sources. Earlier Monday, the authorities completely denied the charges. – The accusations in HRW’s report about Saudi border guards shooting Ethiopians while crossing the border between Saudi Arabia and Yemen are unfounded and without credible sources, says the unnamed source to the AFP news agency. According to HRW, they have received no response to letters sent to Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of the Interior and Ministry of Defence. – Migrants who have been contacted by the BBC claim that they were shot at while trying to cross the border with many others. – The shooting just went on and on, says 21-year-old Mustafa Soufia Mohammed, who tried to get to Saudi Arabia to find work last July. The father of two wanted to try to create a better life for his family back home in Ethiopia. – I didn’t even notice that I was shot, but when I tried to get up to walk, I noticed that my leg wasn’t working, he says. Before this, Souifa says he spent three months traveling from the Horn of Africa to Saudi Arabia, a journey characterized by hunger, violence and human traffickers from both Ethiopia and Yemen. The 21-year-old had to have his leg amputated below the knee, and is now back with his parents in Ethiopia. There he is completely dependent on their help. Others, like 18-year-old Zahra, had all the fingers on one hand shot off. She is unable to talk about what has happened because she is too traumatized, according to the BBC. HRW’s report is based on interviews with a total of 42 people, including 38 Ethiopians who tried to cross the border between Yemen and Saudi Arabia in the period in question. Tirana Hassan is head of Human Rights Watch. Photo: DENIS BALIBOUSE / Reuters In addition, HRW has analyzed over 350 videos and photographs from social media and other sources. They have also analyzed satellite images covering an area of hundreds of square kilometers. Last year, UN experts reported “disturbing allegations” that about 430 migrants had been shot by Saudi Arabian border guards with artillery shells and small arms during the first four months of 2022. The killings are said to have occurred on both the Saudi and Yemeni sides of the border. The report is titled: “They Fired at Us Like Rain: Saudi Mass Killing of Ethiopian Migrants on the Yemen-Saudi Border.” Here, the border guards are accused of having used explosive weapons against the migrants, also against people who have tried to flee back to Yemen.
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Asks the UN to investigate murders of migrants in Saudi Arabia – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
