Thousands of Tigrayans expelled from Saudi Arabia were illegally imprisoned and ill-treated upon their return to Ethiopia, according to a report released Wednesday (January 5) by Human Rights Watch. The NGO interviewed 23 Tigrayans, among the tens of thousands of Ethiopian immigrants expelled by Riyadh in 2021 as part of an agreement between Ethiopia and Saudi Arabia.
With our regional correspondent, Florence morice
It is a further illustration of the ethnic profiling at work in Ethiopia that denounces the NGO. According to Human Rights Watch, forty percent of Ethiopians repatriated from Saudi Arabia between November 2020 and June 2021 were Tigrayans.
And if the others were able to find their freedom after a few days, the fate reserved for those originally from Tigray is very different, says Laetitia Bader, director for the Horn of Africa within the NGO: ” At first, they were in transit centers in Addis Ababa, which over the summer became detention centers. At the same time, hundreds of Tigrayans who were able to leave the transit center at the start of the return and who tried to reach Tigray were arrested and have since been held in at least two detention centers, one in Afar and the other in southern Ethiopia. “
Forced labor, abuse …
None of the witnesses interviewed by the NGO were able to access a lawyer. Some say they have been beaten, others subjected to forced labor. The NGO is also concerned that deportations increased last summer just as waves of arrests targeting Tigrayans increased. ” Saudi Arabia really needs to stop deporting Tigrayans to Ethiopia where they are at real risk of persecution », Insists Laetitia Bader.
Human Rights Watch reminds Saudi Arabia of its obligation to protect and asks it to open access for Tigrayans to asylum procedures.
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