In Saudi Arabia’s Khamis Mushait detention facility, hundreds of Ethiopian prisoners are held on death row in harrowing conditions, waiting in fear of their eventual execution.
On 21 April, the shouts of the guards echoed through the overcrowded prison in Aseer province as they came to read out the names of those scheduled to be executed.
Three Ethiopians were taken away to their fate.
Hailay Berhane, a migrant from the Gulomahda district of northern Ethiopia’s Tigray region, is being held in Khamis Mushait. He told Middle East Eye what happened using the messaging app Imo. Like other prisoners MEE communicated with for this article, his name has been changed.
“Guards came early in the morning in a rush, handed cards to three of the Ethiopian migrants among us and took them away,” he said.
