Hundreds of migrants were killed by Saudi border guards. Saudi border guards are responsible for the mass murder of migrants near the Yemeni border.
According to the report, hundreds of people have reportedly been shot to death, many of them Ethiopians trying to enter Saudi Arabia through a war-torn Yemen.
According to migrants who spoke to the BBC, they witnessed bodies left on the trails and had limbs severed by gunfire.
Prior to now, Saudi Arabia has denied claims of systematic killings.
The Human Rights Watch (HRW) report, They Fired On Us Like Rain, contains graphic testimonies from migrants who claim that Saudi police and soldiers on Yemen’s rugged northern border with Saudi Arabia shot at them and occasionally targeted them with explosive weapons.
Also read: Expat salaries in Saudi Arabia highest in the world: Report
As they attempted to cross the border in search of employment in the oil-rich kingdom, large groups of Ethiopians, including many women and children, came under fire. Migrants who were contacted separately by the BBC described these terrifying nighttime crossings.
The shooting continued, Mustafa Soufia Mohammed, 21, told the BBC.
He claimed that while trying to cross the border illegally in July of last year, some of his 45-person group of migrants were killed when they came under fire.
“I didn’t even notice I was shot,” he admitted, “but when I tried to get up and walk, part of my leg was not with me.”
A three-month journey fraught with peril, starvation, and violence at the hands of Yemeni and Ethiopian smugglers came to a brutal, chaotic end.
Hours later, a video was taken that appears to show his left foot almost entirely severed. Mustafa’s leg was amputated below the knee, and he now uses crutches and an ill-fitting prosthetic limb to walk while living with his parents in Ethiopia.
The father of two claimed, “I went to Saudi Arabia because I wanted to better the lives of my family, but what I hoped for didn’t come to pass. My parents now take care of everything for me.
As Hundreds of migrants were killed by Saudi border guards, the Saudi government said it took the allegations seriously but strongly rejected the UN’s characterization that the killings were systematic or large-scale.
“Based on the limited information provided,” the government replied, “authorities within the Kingdom have discovered no information or evidence to confirm or substantiate the allegations.”
