Saudi Arabia: inhumane conditions in migrant detention centers
Illegal Ethiopians prepare to leave Saudi Arabia on November 10, 2013 (illustrative image).
REUTERS / Faisal Al Nasser
Text by: Léonard Vincent Follow
2 min
An investigation published Sunday by the British newspaper The Telegraph raised an outcry, from European chancelleries to the UN.
Two journalists from the daily revealed, with images and videos, that hundreds of Ethiopians are being held in at least two detention centers in Saudi Arabia.
Centers supposedly intended to curb the spread of Covid-19 and where the conditions for survival are literally appalling.
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“
The guards throw the corpses as if they were garbage cans
.
So says one of these Ethiopian detainees who were clandestinely contacted by the Ethiopian journalist Zecharias Zelalem and the British Will Brown for the daily
The Telegraph
.
All the prisoners questioned described a concentration camp hell;
the promiscuity of hundreds of men in terrible heat, lashes to the rhythm of racist yells, little water, little food.
The images filmed by cellphones and sent to the
Telegraph
are ghastly: overflowing latrines, blocked windows, desperate calls from shirtless men, and bare feet, wading in a sewer.
And even a suicide teenager hanging from a window.
Geolocation data indicates that at least two centers are located one in the south, the other in the west of the country, near Jazan and Mecca.
Ethiopian migrants were reportedly locked there in April, after roundups purportedly intended to reduce the factors in the spread of Covid-19.
As soon as the investigation was published, international reactions were immediate.
Solicited, the International Organization of Migration (IOM), the General Secretariat of the United Nations, the British diplomacy and the American organization Human Rights Watch expressed their “
concern
” and asked for an investigation.
The very next day, Saudi Arabia promised to shed light on these “
shocking and unacceptable
”
images
.
In a statement sent to the newspaper, the Saudi government says it is "
examining the state of all government centers in the light of these allegations
", adding that if some "
failed to meet their needs
", the issue would be resolved.
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Saudi Arabia
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