Amnesty International (AI) has released a 26-page report highlighting maltreatment of thousands of Ethiopian migrants in Saudi prisons.

The rights organisation claimed that Saudi Arabian authorities have subjected detained Ethiopian migrants to a catalogue of ‘unimaginable cruelty’, including chaining detainees together in pairs, confining them 24 hours a day in unbearably-crowded, hot and disease-ridden cells, and forcing them to use their cell floors as toilets.

‘Thousands of Ethiopian migrants, who left their homes in search of a better life, have instead faced unimaginable cruelty at every turn’, Researcher and Advisor on Refugee and Migrant Rights at AI, Marie Forestier, said.

‘Confined to filthy cells, surrounded by death and disease, the situation is so dire that at least two people have attempted to take their own lives’.

Two detainees, according to the AI report, reported that guards subjected them and other detainees to electric shocks as punishment for complaining about conditions.

Meanwhile, Ethiopia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs is understood to be making efforts to return citizens of the country to their homes.

‘Ethiopia continues to receive its most vulnerable citizens from the Kingdom of Saudi (KSA), although the Covid-19 infection rate spikes at home’, a statement from the ministry read.

‘Since April 2020, Ethiopia has repatriated and quarantined 3,500 of the most vulnerable migrants. They have been in the process of being reintegrated into their community’.

‘Another round of 2,000, comprising women, unaccompanied minors, and migrants with health conditions, have begun to arrive in the capital since the eve of Ethiopian New Year in a safe and dignified manner.

‘So far, we have received 964 (58 infants), assisted them in the temporary transit places (universities in the capital), and sent them to their destination community for reintegration’.

Source: The Reporter Ethiopia

Photo source: UNICEF Ethiopia