Thousands of migrants have been killed by the Saudi border guards on the Yemeni border, according to a report by Human Rights Watch. The murder follows a systematic and widespread pattern. The killings and torture have been reported in the Human Rights Watch (HRW) report for the 15-month period- roughly between March 2022 and June 2024. The report has finally been published on August 21, 2024. It is deemed as one of the serious crimes against humanity. Yemen has the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
The reports of mass killing first surfaced October last year in a letter by UN to the Saudi government. This led to the awakening of the international community and humanitarian organizations to the events.
The majority of the people killed and tortured in the case are African migrants, especially those from Ethiopia. The survivors of the crisis are suffering deep trauma. The key eye-witnesses and survivors describe the situation as horrific and inhumane. The criminals used explosive weapons to kill the refugees. The people face imprisonment and beating. A detention centre was identified in Monabbih. Most of the survivors have lost at least one limb of their body. The photographs young children suffering injuries, some losing their fingers, hands, or legs. The women and girls were raped, and sometimes the men of the group were forced to rape them; otherwise, they were executed. A 14-year-old girl narrates that she slept with dead bodies believing that they were asleep, and not dead. In Yemen, the main migrant routes are said to be filled with graves of people who were killed and buried on the way.
Most of the refugees are those who come looking for jobs and opportunities in the oil-rich Saudi. The other are those who have faced grave injustices in their own countries, which are rampant with human rights violations, civil strife etc. and come looking for a more humanitarian place to live in. Majority of these refugees follow a well-defined path to arrive at the destination. They follow the ‘Eastern route’ or the ‘Yemeni route’; which is from the Horn of Africa, across the Gulf of Eden, through Yemen and into Saudi Arabia. But this path is filled with a lot of difficulties and adversities. The route is filled with smugglers and traffickers; their main purposed is only to take advantage of the innocent migrants and asylum seekers.
The report of the Human Rights Watch is titled ‘They Fired On Us’. Although a lot of different accounts of the incident are available, this report is the most extensive and detailed one. The report contains multiple layers of eye-witness accounts and satellite imagery. The Human Rights Watch has also analysed a large number of videos and photographs present in the different social media platforms. Members of the Independent Forensic Expert Group (IFEG) also analysed videos and photographs in social media.
Although the Human Rights Watch report are available till June 2024; evidence has proved that the murder and torture are still going on. Human Rights Watch has written to Saudi and Houthi Authorities. Earlier, Saudi rejected the mass killings to be systematic. But, after, the report, there is an urgent need for Saudi Arabia to look at the matter on the Yemeni border and investigate crimes against refugees and asylum seekers.
