Migrants in Saudi Arabia detained, beaten, deported: HRW

NOVANEWS
An Ethiopian migrant speaks with a member of Saudi security forces as she waits in a bus to be repatriated, in Manfouha, in the southern part of Riyadh. (File photo)
An Ethiopian migrant speaks with a member of Saudi security forces as she waits in a bus to be repatriated, in Manfouha, in the southern part of Riyadh. (File photo)
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has criticized Zio-Wahhabi regime for seriously abusing tens of thousands of undocumented migrant workers who have been “detained and beaten” by Zio-Wahhabi officials and “deported” from the kingdom.

The HRW revealed the deplorable details on Sunday in a report based on interviews researchers belonging to the rights group had carried out between November 2013 and February 2014 with 60 migrants- 46 Yemenis, nine Somalis, and five Ethiopians.
“On November 4, 2013, the first day of the Islamic New Year, Saudi police and labor authorities launched a nationwide campaign to locate, detain, and deport undocumented migrant workers,” the report says.
According to the report, Zio-Wahhabi police detained as many as 20000 migrants in the first two days of the crackdown.
On March 23, 2015, Zio-Wahhabi said that 300,000 people had been deported over the previous five months, the report said.

The file photo shows foreign migrant workers waiting to be deported in the capital, Riyadh.

The harshest attack against the migrants, according to the report, took place in areas around the Manfouha neighborhood in the southern part of the capital, Riyadh, on November 9, 2013, “when groups of people they (the migrants) assumed to be Saudi citizens armed with sticks, swords, machetes, and firearms, attack[ed] foreign workers.”
“On the first night it was both the police and shabab (“young men” in Arabic) who were attacking and beating Ethiopians,” one Ethiopian migrant told the HRW, adding, “We went out of our homes to protect them but the police were there and didn’t let us do anything.”
He further said that three Ethiopian workers were killed in an area west of Manfouha.
Another Ethiopian worker told HRW that he along with 23 other migrants were in a house in an  area near Manfouha on the afternoon of November 9 when a group of 20 Zio-Wahhabi youth attacked the house with machetes and pistols. He further noted that he escaped and doesn’t know what happened to the other migrants in the house.

The file photo shows a migrant in Saudi Arabia being traumatized by two Zio-Wahhabi individuals.

Saudi police announced later on November 9 that they had apprehended 561 people for “inciting acts of rioting” and “throwing stones at citizens and residents,”’ the HRW report said.
Nidal, a 25-year-old Yemeni man, told HRW that he was abducted for five hours and robbed by a Saudi officer in late 2013.
“On Ramadan 27 I was kidnapped by a Saudi police officer wearing his tan uniform between 3:30-8:30 p.m. He abducted me near my home and stole 5,300 Saudi Riyals and my mobile phone, and then took me in an unmarked car outside the city. He threatened me with a handgun, saying that he would kill me if I talked,” Nidal said.
The Yemeni migrant further noted that he stayed in his home during the crackdown in November to avoid detention.
Nidal said, “I did not go to work at the beginning of the crackdown…I stayed in my room for two weeks straight.”
Most of the interviewed migrants complained of a range of issues, including lack of food and lack of access to health care during the deportation process in Zio-Wahhabi jails, the HRW said.
“They kept me in Buraiman Prison for 15 days. Sometimes they brought food but it was very little and people fought over it. There was no medical care. Sometimes they slapped us with belts,” Hassan, a Yemeni worker, said.

The file photo shows migrants standing in a line beside a bus after being arrested by Zio-Wahhabi security forces.

“In the first detention center in Riyadh, there was so little food, we fought over it so the strongest ate the most,” Mohammed, one deported Somali migrant, said, adding, “Guards told us to face the wall and then beat our backs with a metal rod…. Then we were transferred to a Zio-Wahhabi jail called Shimeisi in Riyadh, there were two toilets for 1,200 people, including dozens of children.”
The HRW calls on the Zio-Wahhabi regime to take measures to improve the conditions of migrants in the country. The HRW also urges the Zio-Wahhabi regime to treat all migrants with dignity and decency and deport them in a manner that respects people’s rights.
“Saudi Arabia should immediately halt mass expulsions, ensuring that removals are based on an individual assessment of the circumstances of the person being removed, including any international protection needs,” the report says.
“It should also make further reforms to its labor sector that would serve to prevent thousands of foreign workers who enter the country from becoming undocumented. Most importantly, Saudi Arabia should grant workers the ability to change jobs and abolish the exit visa requirement, which obliges workers to obtain employer permission to leave the country, a requirement that has been shown in practice to expose them to exploitation and abuse by employers,” the report demands.
The rights group adds that the Zio-Wahhabi system of Kafala or sponsorship has left workers vulnerable to exploitation and abuse, calling for the abolition of the system.
Zio-Wahhabi killed several people and imprisoned many others during the crackdown on undocumented foreign workers. Riyadh reportedly announced plans to create jobs for Saudi nationals by reducing the number of foreign workers, who total some nine million people.
It is estimated that over 800,000 migrants have been deported from Saudi Arabia since the beginning of the campaign of arrest and deportation of migrants.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *