Saudi Arabia’s border troops are accused of indiscriminate use of force against migrants at their borders, with accounts of deaths and injuries and several reports of women being raped.
Ethiopian migrants trying to cross from neighbouring Yemen between 2019 and 2024 have reported to the Guardian of being machine-gunned and of viewing corpses rotting in the border region.
“I myself witnessed three people die beside me,” one Ethiopian who tried to cross at night into Saudi Arabia’s Najran province with dozens of others in 2022, described. “The Saudi fire blew away one of my legs. There were the body parts of the dead and injured all around me.
Another immigrant spoke of enduring shrapnel injuries to his back and leg. A third reported seeing the rape of three Ethiopian women by men in Saudi border guard uniforms. Others spoke of being beaten and raped.
Another man, who tried to cross in January 2023, added:
“The trip was especially terrifying. Along the way, we had many rotting corpses that were being consumed by animals. Border guards kept firing at us while we were passing through dangerous routes.”
Two young women were shot by bullets, he said.
“One was hit in the chest, and the other in the back of her neck. Both the girls died immediately. Several migrants plunged off a cliff while attempting to flee. Others were taken captive or wounded by bullets. We have no clue what became of them. We don’t know if the two girls were ever buried.”
The accounts are echoed in an August 2023 report by Human Rights Watch (HRW), which concluded that Saudi border guards had “killed hundreds of Ethiopian migrants and asylum seekers” on the southern border with Yemen between March 2022 and June 2023 “in a pattern that is widespread and systematic” with firearms and explosive weapons. The organisation determined the acts could constitute crimes against humanity.
HRW reported one situation in which Saudi border guards killed an Ethiopian man who would not rape two girls after their group had endured a rocket attack using explosive weapons. They then coerced a young boy into raping the girls, HRW stated. In another incident, Saudi border guards compelled Ethiopian migrants to select where they wanted to be shot before shooting them at close range.
“There is a total culture of impunity and unaccountability along the border,”
said Nadia Hardman, the author of HRW’s report.
“It’s not possible to know how many people have actually been killed. Nobody has independent access to these places. They are essentially off limits.”
Saudi Arabia is home to an estimated 750,000 Ethiopian migrants. Over half are thought to have entered the country illegally. These irregular migrants face hazardous desert journeys and sea voyages and widespread abuses at the hands of people smugglers, armed gangs and Yemeni rebel groups before they even cross into Saudi territory. Those who succeed take on low-wage jobs in construction, on farms and as domestic servants.
Over the last three years, Saudi security forces have launched security campaigns to arrest hundreds of thousands of illegal foreign workers and deport them to Ethiopia. Before the hosting of the football World Cup in 2034 and the building of 11 new stadiums, Saudi Arabia is subjected to increasing criticism over the conditions for migrant workers.
The illegal journey of Ethiopians through Yemen to get jobs comes from regions that have suffered from civil war, poverty and climate change. In 2022-2023, the number of Ethiopians taking this risky trip rose by 32% to 96,670, according to the UN. Fewer Somalis also use this route.
There has been no indication that Saudi Arabia has ceased employing fatal force to discourage irregular crossing. One Ethiopian migrant, attempting to enter the country from a Yemeni encampment named Al Raqw in December 2024, reported that Saudi border troops directed machine guns and artillery against him and 10 other Ethiopians to drive them back into Yemen, injuring one.