International rights group, the Human Rights Watch (HRW), has accused Saudi Arabian border guards of killing hundreds of Ethiopian migrants trying to cross through Yemen into the Gulf kingdom following conflicts in their country.
The rights group, which raised the alarm in a report on Monday, said the Saudi guards had, since last year, fired “explosive weapons” on Ethiopian migrants trying to cross into the country, killing hundreds of them in the process.
“Saudi officials are killing hundreds of migrants and asylum seekers in this remote border area out of view of the rest of the world,” a researcher with the HRW, Nadia Hardman, said in the report.
“Spending billions buying up professional golf, football clubs, and major entertainment events to improve the Saudi image should not deflect attention from these horrendous crimes,” Hardman added.
The New York-based group said it had documented abuses against Ethiopian migrants in Saudi Arabia and Yemen for nearly a decade, but the latest killings appear to be “widespread and systematic” and may amount to “crimes against humanity.”
But in a swift rebuttal, the Saudi government has refuted the claims, saying its border guards have never indulged in killing of migrants at any time.
An official of the Saudi government who spoke to journalists, described the allegations as “unfounded.”
The official who spoke on the condition of anonymity, pointed out that a “significant escalation of abuses along the perilous Eastern Route from the Horn of Africa to Saudi Arabia, where hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians live and work” has nothing to do with the guards who were well trained to conduct themselves in appropriate manner.
“The allegations included in the Human Rights Watch report about Saudi border guards shooting Ethiopians while they were crossing the Saudi-Yemeni border are unfounded and not based on reliable sources,” the official said.
“Our border guards are well trained and they cannot engage in killings of innocent people,” he added.