{"id":14403,"date":"2022-05-07T06:18:18","date_gmt":"2022-05-07T06:18:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/?p=14403"},"modified":"2022-05-07T06:18:21","modified_gmt":"2022-05-07T06:18:21","slug":"saudi-authorities-hide-abuses-in-migrant-centers-amid-wave-of-arrests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/?p=14403","title":{"rendered":"Saudi authorities hide abuses in migrant centers amid wave of arrests"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ethiopians tell MEE they are being beaten, extorted, and left in putrid, overcrowded rooms as thousands of people are rounded up and deported across the kingdom<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Source: MEE<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saudi<\/a> authorities are concealing rampant abuses and pitiful conditions at migrant detention centres while continuing to arrest thousands of African and Yemeni<\/a> migrants, Middle East Eye can reveal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ethiopian migrants awaiting deportation said Saudi authorities have conducted mass searches of the centres, confiscating phones and any devices that could be used to relay images of their suffering to the outside world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sources said the crackdown was an attempt to prevent their conditions from being broadcast to the world during Ramadan, which would risk criticism and uproar in the Muslim world during the holy month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Police have also ordered people set for deportation to sign non-disclosure agreements forbidding them from talking to journalists about their experiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey came in here looking for phones because they don\u2019t want the world to see images of our suffering here,\u201d says Semir, an Ethiopian migrant currently held at a deportation centre in Riyadh. \u201cWhen they would find a phone, they would beat up the owner with batons.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The number of Ethiopian detainees held at various migrant detention centres has swelled in recent months. In an attempt to ease the burden, Saudi authorities reached an agreement with Ethiopia in March to fly out at least 100,000 Ethiopians, many of whom were detained in waves of\u00a0anti-migrant crackdowns<\/a>\u00a0last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They came in here looking for phones because they don\u2019t want the world to see images of our suffering here<\/p>Semir, Ethiopian migrant<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Ethiopians held in the centres have told MEE that they are given little to eat and are held for months in putrid, overcrowded rooms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople are going mad here. There is little food and many of us haven\u2019t been outdoors in almost nine months,\u201d says Nebil, a detainee in Riyadh. \u201cWe used to get a piece of bread three times a day. Since Ramadan, we get it only once, at night.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Saudi foreign ministry has not responded to a request for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘Disease ridden’<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In 2020, smartphones smuggled into two migrant detention centres captured graphic images<\/a> depicting hundreds of emaciated African men, some appearing to be on the brink of death, in cramped quarters where sewage flowed and disease was rampant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rights groups confirmed that abuse and deaths were commonplace at these centres and in October 2020, the European Union parliament passed a resolution<\/a> condemning Saudi Arabia for its mistreatment of migrants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The uproar eventually led to tens of thousands of migrants being repatriated throughout 2021, many of whom are struggling to cope with enduring trauma. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But many remained behind in the facilities, with Ethiopia\u2019s government preoccupied last year by the county\u2019s civil war and rebel fighters\u00a0threatening<\/a>\u00a0to attack the capital city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
People are seen lying on the floor of a Saudi detention centre (supplied)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Eventually, the outcry of social media users and relatives in Ethiopia is believed to have pushed Ethiopian officials to send a high-level delegation<\/a> to Riyadh earlier this year, to begin negotiating the return of their citizens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since an agreement was signed in March, thousands of Ethiopians have returned to their homeland, with another 1,031 landing in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on Wednesday<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, mass arrests by Saudi authorities continue to target thousands more, with 15,000 migrants<\/a>, almost all of them Ethiopians and Yemenis, detained in a single week in March alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result, detention centres aren\u2019t emptying, and the abuse persists, according to detainees.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis place is disease-ridden. Everyone grows sick because they leave us to live and eat on a filthy floor with the stench of urine everywhere,\u201d one told MEE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The statements by the migrants about the conditions at the detention centres appear to correspond with the assessment of staffers from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and other UN agencies supporting relief efforts at returnee reception centres in Ethiopia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn addition to injuries and illnesses suffered due to the hazardous journey, the IOM has observed that communicable diseases, such as tuberculosis and skin conditions are prevalent among returnees,\u201d says Yvonne Ndege, spokesperson for the agency\u2019s East and Horn of Africa office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cProlonged periods in overcrowded and unsanitary facilities may well be a contributing factor to this issue.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘It was very humiliating’<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

MEE spoke to nine inmates at the Riyadh deportation centre and the infamous al-Shumaisi prison near Mecca. Detainees used mobile phones with no internet connection that survived the pre-Ramadan purge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have been left here to rot,\u201d said Ali, a migrant at al-Shumaisi centre. \u201cSince they put me here, I\u2019ve seen diplomats from Chad, Ghana, and Somalia come to inquire about their citizens. Nobody from the Ethiopian embassy has visited even though Ethiopians are the majority here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ali added that while beatings of migrants and poor sanitation have long been the norm, he revealed that in recent months, prison officials have begun extorting the families of detainees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEvery week, the guards come here with what they call a \u2018souq\u2019 [market]. They bring clean water, biscuits, and other items from outside. We can only purchase these items by having our families transfer money to the personal accounts of guards and prison staff. But they charge us more than the price on the Saudi market, and they pocket a lot of the money transferred to them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ethiopia\u2019s ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Lencho Bati, appeared unwilling to address accusations of neglect by his office, nor claims that extortion and abuse by Saudi prison officials are ongoing in the centres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am returning to Riyadh from Mecca. Let\u2019s talk after Eid,\u201d he told MEE. Bati is yet to respond to a request for comment sent after the Eid holiday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of the detainees are among the tens of thousands<\/a> who are estimated each year to trek along the extremely dangerous migrant corridor from East Africa, across the Red Sea, into Yemen, and up to Saudi Arabia. But others had spent up years living and working legally in the kingdom prior to being arrested. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI spent seven years working for a company in Jeddah. I never needed assistance and provided for my loved ones,\u201d said Omer, another migrant at al-Shumaisi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut my company laid me off as it went bankrupt because of the pandemic. Without an employer, I couldn\u2019t renew my residency papers. I was arrested shortly after my papers expired.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Semir added that this was the case with many of the new arrivals that had flooded the Riyadh facility he is currently held at. Nearly 10,000 of those detained in the March crackdown were singled out for residency permit issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cImagine being a driver for a company one day, and then suddenly being forced to squat in a tiny, crowded room with no food and contagious skin rashes the next day. It\u2019s tragic,\u201d Semir said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three Ethiopians deported home described being told to sign non-disclosure agreements instructing them to avoid speaking about their experiences in detention. One said the officer warned that \u201clegal action would be taken against violators even in Ethiopia”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Others, meanwhile, weren\u2019t actually migrants, but Saudi-born children of Ethiopian migrants who under Saudi law aren\u2019t eligible for citizenship. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aisha, 18, spent four months at al-Shumaisi before being put aboard a flight to her parents\u2019 country. She recalled the night when the immigration police, known as \u201cjawazat\u201d, raided her family\u2019s home in Mecca and arrested her alongside her brother and father.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both Aisha and her brother were born in Saudi Arabia and have lived there all their lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“They came unannounced at night and broke down the door. They used foul language while addressing us and escorted us to a minibus they brought along with the raiding party,” she said while fighting back tears. “It was very humiliating.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many returnees to Ethiopia are suffering from mental illness, alongside recovering from the physical abuse they endured. Mental health workers at returnee centres are already under strain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The IOM\u2019s Yvonne Ndege said that in addition to the counselling and psychosocial support the IOM is providing, “many returnees also often require intensive and clinical psychiatric care when they arrive home”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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