HRW Report: Saudi Border Guards Killed Hundreds of Ethiopian Migrants at Yemen Border

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, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report released on Monday. In a report titled, “‘They Fired on Us Like Rain’: Saudi Arabian Mass Killings of Ethiopian Migrants at the Yemen-Saudi Border,” it was found that Saudi border guards have used explosive weapons to kill many migrants and shot other migrants at close range, what appeared as a systematic pattern of attacks.

Shockingly, in some cases, 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, according to the 73-page report.

“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 HRW said in a statement. “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 New York-based rights group said that it 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. The group is also said to have analyzed over 350 videos and photographs posted to social media or gathered from other sources, and several hundred square kilometers of satellite imagery.

In the statement, HRW said that it has written to the Saudi and Houthi authorities. Approximately 750,000 Ethiopians live and work in Saudi Arabia. While many 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 north.

While HRW has documented killings of migrants at the border with Yemen and Saudi Arabia since 2014, the killings, according to the group, appear to be a deliberate escalation in both the number and manner of targeted killings.

Migrants and asylum seekers told HRW that 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. Many said Houthi forces worked with smugglers and would extort them or transfer them to what migrants described as detention centers, where people were abused until they could pay an “exit fee.”

Migrants in groups of up to 200 people would regularly try to cross the border into Saudi Arabia, often making multiple attempts after Saudi border guards pushed them back.  People traveling in groups described being attacked by mortar projectiles and other explosive weapons from the direction of Saudi border guards once they had crossed the border. Those interviewed described 28 incidents with Saudi border guards using explosive weapons.

According to the report, people traveling in smaller groups or on their own said once they crossed the Yemen-Saudi border that Saudi border guards carrying rifles shot at them. People also described guards beating them with rocks and metal bars. Fourteen interviewees witnessed or were themselves wounded in shooting incidents at close range. Six were targeted both by explosive weapons and by shootings.

In the wake of the harrowing report, HRW has asked Saudi Arabia to urgently revoke any policy, whether explicit or de facto, to use lethal force on migrants and asylum seekers. The rights group also said the government should probe security personnel responsible for unlawful killings at the Yemen border. Furthermore, the group called for a UN-backed investigation to assess abuses against migrants and whether killings amount to crimes against humanity.