(Beirut) – The interactive dialogue with the special rapporteur on the human rights of migrants at the United Nations Human Rights Council on June 25 and June 26, 2024, should condemn the situation of migrants’ rights in Saudi Arabia and call for immediate action, ALQST for Human Rights and Human Rights Watch said today.
The situation of migrant workers in the kingdom, particularly those in the construction industry and domestic workers, as well as the killings of migrants and asylum seekers on the Yemen-Saudi border by Saudi border guards, requires urgent attention and immediate action.
Saudi authorities use “giga-projects,” such as the NEOM megacity project and their bid for the 2034 FIFA World Cup, to deflect from criticism of the country’s poor human rights record and to rehabilitate their image as a pervasive human rights violator, ALQST and Human Rights Watch said.
These projects rely on the exploitation and abuse of migrant workers’ rights under the abusive kafala (sponsorship) system that ties workers to their sponsors for their residency and work permits. Migrant workers make up approximately 80 percent of the private sector labor force in Saudi Arabia. Despite reforms, employers still hold disproportionate control over workers, including over whether they can change jobs.
In these conditions, workers are still vulnerable to widespread abuse, including contract substitution, exorbitant recruitment fees, non-payment of wages, confiscation of passports by employers, and forced labor. Saudi Arabia also continues to use calendar-based midday outdoor work bans as its primary heat protection measure, despite evidence that they are ineffective in protecting workers.
When workers lose their lives in the kingdom, their deaths are not properly investigated, and grieving families are not compensated as a majority of the deaths are classified as non-work related. There have also been frequent reports of unpaid wages for months on end.
Saudi authorities have also been killing scores of Ethiopian migrants at the Saudi-Yemen border between March 2022 and June 2023. Human Rights Watch found multiple instances in which Saudi border guards used explosive weapons on migrants and asylum seekers attempting to cross from Yemen into Saudi Arabia, leading to hundreds of deaths and injuries. These violent actions against migrants are serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law and may amount to crimes against humanity.
ALQST and Human Rights Watch said that the Saudi government should take the following actions:
- Dismantle the kafala system, including abolishing the requirement for workers to get an exit permit before leaving the country;
- Bring Saudi Arabia’s domestic labor legislation in line with international human rights standards, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the right to freedom of movement;
- Require companies considering doing business in Saudi Arabia to conduct robust human rights due diligence assessments and to ensure the protection of migrant workers’ rights;
- Carry out the recommendations at Saudi Arabia’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of its human rights situations at the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) by ratifying the International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (ICMW);
- Establish an immediate investigation into the killings of migrants at the Yemen-Saudi border.
The international community should address the ongoing human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia by urging the country’s authorities to adhere to its human rights obligations by protecting the rights of migrants within and at its borders, the groups said.
