African refugees photographed ‘suffering’ in Saudi Covid-19

Hundreds of African refugees are allegedly being forcefully kept in appalling conditions in Saudi Arabia’s Covid-19 detention centres as part of a drive to contain the spread of the virus.

CAPE TOWN, September 2 (ANA) – Hundreds of African refugees are allegedly being forcefully kept in appalling conditions in Saudi Arabia’s Covid-19 detention centres as part of a drive to contain the spread of the virus, British publication, the Sunday Telegraph has reported.

According to the Telegraph, graphic mobile phone images sent to the newspaper by refugees held inside the detention centres show dozens of emaciated men crippled by the Arabian heat, lying shirtless in tightly packed rows in small rooms with barred windows.

Several of the refugees in the photographs can be seen displaying scars on their backs. They claim these were the result of being beaten by guards. The refugees also claim to have been racially abused.

Broadcaster Al Jazeera reported other migrants also alleging beatings with electric cords, and racial abuse.

The Telegraph said that one photo showed what appeared to be a corpse covered in a purple and white blanket, in the midst of the refugees. The detainees alleged the photo was of a refugee who had died of heatstroke.

Others were supplied with barely enough food and water to survive, it was alleged.

According to not-for profit press monitoring organisation, the Middle East Monitor, most of the men in the centres are Ethiopians who came to Saudi Arabia to escape poverty in their home country, while others are from war-torn Yemen.

Reports suggest that some arrived after being recruited by Saudi “agents” or human traffickers.

Tens of thousands have made their way to Saudi Arabia over the past decade.

Al Jazeera reported that in March, the government of Saudi Arabia deported nearly 3,000 Ethiopian migrant workers as it struggled to deal with the coronavirus outbreak.

The treatment of refugees amid the coronavirus pandemic has been highlighted in several areas.

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) have called on Spanish authorities to adopt “urgent and coordinated measures to respond to the concerning situation of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants” hosted in the autonomous city of Melilla, located on the north west coast of Africa, bordering Morocco.

According to the IOM, 1,400 people are being housed at the facility, twice its intended capacity. Included in that number are some 150 children, as well as women and highly vulnerable people with pre-existing medical conditions and profiles that put them at risk of Covid-19.

Many of them have fled war or persecution and some have applied for asylum in Spain.

African News Agency (ANA); Editing by Desiree Erasmus