New report by human rights watchdog alleges mistreatment of ethnic Tigrayans singled out after return to conflict-hit Ethiopia.
Thousands of ethnic Tigrayans repatriated from Saudi Arabia have been detained or forcibly disappeared after arriving back home in Ethiopia, a new Human Rights Watch report (HRW) has said.
The allegations detailed by HRW on Wednesday took place during a brutal conflict that erupted between federal government troops and fighters from the northern Tigray region in November 2020, killing tens of thousands of people and leaving an immense humanitarian crisis in its wake.
Ethiopia’s government, which in November announced a six-month state of emergency, denies ferreting out Tigrayans based on their ethnicity. It says only people suspected of supporting the Tigrayan forces, who last month pulled back into their region, were being investigated. Ethiopia’s own state-affiliated rights watchdog estimated that thousands had been caught up in the sweeps.
In its report, HRW said Tigrayans repatriated from Saudi Arabia, where hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians have migrated to seek work over the years, were singled out and held in the capital, Addis Ababa, and elsewhere against their will upon returning.
Others were prevented from returning to Tigray, the northernmost region of Ethiopia, after being identified at roadside checkpoints or airports and transferred to detention facilities, the report said.
“Ethiopian authorities are persecuting Tigrayans deported from Saudi Arabia by wrongfully detaining and forcibly disappearing them,” said Nadia Hardman, a refugee and migrants rights researcher at HRW.
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