More than 200 Ethiopian migrants face the death penalty in Saudi Arabia
According to Human Rights Watch, at least 65 Ethiopian prisoners are at "imminent risk" following recent executions. Many of those sentenced are migrants who fled the war in Tigray. The Ethiopian Catholic Church is also calling for urgent diplomatic intervention to stop the executions and ensure legal assistance to the prisoners.
Riyadh (AsiaNews) – The war in the Middle East has not stopped executions in Saudi Arabia, where more than 200 Ethiopian migrants face the death penalty for drug-related offences.
The warning comes from Human Rights Watch (HRW), which recently reported that at least 65 prisoners are at "imminent risk" following the execution of three Ethiopians on 21 April.
According to the organisation, many of the convicted migrants had left Ethiopia's Tigray region during the 2020-2022 civil war, crossing the Gulf of Aden to Yemen in an attempt to reach the Saudi kingdom to find work.
Some brought khat, a stimulant plant that is legal and widely consumed in parts of Ethiopia and Yemen, unaware that the substance is illegal in Saudi Arabia.
Witness statements collected by HRW describe summary trials, often conducted in groups, without interpreters or legal assistance.
These accounts reveal that the accused signed documents in Arabic without understanding their content and, in some cases, were beaten by security forces.
Ethiopian Catholic Bishop Tesfaselassie Medhin waded into the affair, issuing an appeal for immediate diplomatic action to halt the executions and protect the rights of Ethiopian migrants held in Saudi Arabia.
According to the prelate, many of the prisoners are young people who fled war, poverty, and political instability, ending up trapped in human trafficking networks along one of the world's most dangerous migration routes.
In the past few years, thousands of Ethiopians attempted to reach Saudi Arabia through war-torn Yemen. Along the route, migrants and asylum seekers have reported violence by traffickers and Saudi border guards.
Back in 2023, HRW accused Saudi forces of killing hundreds of Ethiopian migrants on the border with Yemen, describing it as a possible “crime against humanity”.
According to data cited by the organisation, Saudi Arabia carried out a record number of executions in the past two years: 345 in 2024 and 356 in 2025, many of whom were foreign nationals convicted of nonviolent drug offences.
HRW has also called on the Ethiopian government and its diplomatic representatives in Saudi Arabia to intervene immediately to provide consular assistance to the detainees, but Addis Ababa has so far issued no official statement on the matter.
Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of Ethiopian workers continue to live and work in the Saudi kingdom, often in precarious conditions and without adequate legal protections, a situation further exacerbated by the ongoing crises in the Middle East, which are impacting various groups of migrant workers in the Gulf.
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11/08/2017 20:05
