Saudi Arabia keeps migrants in inhumane, degrading conditions | Human Rights Watch

Saudi Arabia is Holding Migrants in Inhumane, Degrading Conditions

Read more: https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/12/15/saudi-arabia-migrants-held-inhuman-degrading-conditions(Beirut, December 15, 2020) - A deportation center in R…

Continue reading: https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/12/15/saudi-arabia-migrants-held-inhuman-degrading-conditions

(Beirut, December 15, 2020) - Hundreds of mostly Ethiopian migrant workers are held in a deportation center in Riyadh in conditions so degrading that they are tantamount to ill-treatment, Human Rights Watch said today. Detainees were held for long periods in extremely overcrowded rooms and were tortured and beaten by guards with rubber-coated metal bars, which resulted in at least three deaths in custody between October and November. The Saudi authorities should immediately release the most vulnerable detainees and ensure that detention is only used as an exceptional measure of last resort. It should immediately end torture and other ill-treatment and ensure that detention conditions meet international standards.

"Saudi Arabia, one of the richest countries in the world, has no excuse for holding migrant workers in appalling conditions for months in the midst of a health pandemic," said Nadia Hardman, refugee and migrant rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. "Video footage of people crowded together, allegations of torture and unlawful murders is shocking, as is the authorities' apparent reluctance to do anything to investigate the conditions of abuse and hold those responsible to justice."

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