Saudis beating Ethiopian migrants

New video footage has emerged showing Saudi Arabia’s security forces beating Ethiopian migrant workers. The video posted online on Saturday shows men mercilessly beating and punching Ethiopians on the streets and other undisclosed locations. A person is also shown lying dead on the ground with a bullet mark in the chest. On Tuesday, the Ethiopian government announced the death of three of its citizens during clashes in Saudi Arabia. On Friday, Ethiopians staged a demonstration in front of the Saudi embassy in the capital Addis Ababa against the crackdown on illegal immigrants by Al Saud government. Between nine and 11 million of Saudi Arabia’s 27-million-strong population are foreign workers. On November 4, a seven-month amnesty for expatriate workers expired. Hundreds of thousands of people were forced to leave the country during the time they had to rectify their visa status without penalty. Many of the foreign workers say they could not use the amnesty due to bureaucratic difficulties or disputes with their original sponsors. Foreign workers cannot change jobs or leave Saudi Arabia without the permission of their sponsors, who are often Saudi companies or individuals providing workers to businesses for profit. Many of the country’s foreign laborers have also been arrested. In late October, rights group Amnesty International censured Saudi authorities for not addressing the “dire human rights situation” in the kingdom. The group also handed in a paper to the United Nations, which included information regarding a “new wave of repression against civil society, which has taken place over the last two years.”