Human Rights Watch: At Least 65 Ethiopian Migrants Face Imminent Execution in Saudi Arabia

Human Rights Watch said Tuesday that at least 65 Ethiopian migrants are at imminent risk of execution in Saudi Arabia for drug-related offenses, days after Saudi authorities publicly announced the execution of three Ethiopian nationals.

The April 21 executions were announced by Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Interior through the state-run Saudi Press Agency, according to Human Rights Watch’s report published April 28. The rights group said Saudi authorities described the three men as convicted of “participating in smuggling hashish into Saudi Arabia.” The figure of at least 65 Ethiopians at imminent risk, along with allegations that detainees were denied basic fair-trial protections, comes from Human Rights Watch’s own reporting.

Human Rights Watch said it interviewed three informed sources about three Ethiopian men being held in the Khamis Mushait detention facility in Saudi Arabia’s Asir region. According to the group’s interview-based account, the men fled the 2020-2022 conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, traveled through Yemen into Saudi Arabia and carried khat during the journey.

The rights group said the men were arrested between 2023 and 2024 and later sentenced to death after what sources described as two or three brief group hearings, some conducted by video link. Human Rights Watch said the sources told it the men had no legal representation, mostly no translators and were not told the charges against them. The group also said sources alleged the men were beaten and forced to sign documents they did not understand.

Human Rights Watch said the men have been detained for more than two years, have had no opportunity to appeal and have had no contact with Ethiopian consular officials. It said the figure of 65 refers to Ethiopians in that cell block facing execution. The group also cited media reports that more than 200 Ethiopians may be on death row at Khamis Mushait, but said it could not independently verify that larger number.

Nadia Hardman, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, said: “Saudi Arabia’s willingness to execute foreign migrants for nonviolent offences following trials that denied them basic due process reflects a profound disregard for their rights and lives.”

One detainee cited by Human Rights Watch described the fear inside the facility in urgent terms: “Last week, three of our friends were killed, maybe today or the day after tomorrow they [Saudi security officials] can kill me. Please help us.”

A key issue in the cases described by Human Rights Watch is khat, a leaf chewed as a stimulant in parts of Ethiopia and Yemen. The group said khat is culturally used and legally tolerated in those countries, but that its active ingredient, cathinone, is banned in Saudi Arabia. That legal mismatch helps explain how migrants moving through the region can face severe penalties after crossing into the kingdom.

The report lands against a broader rise in executions in Saudi Arabia. Human Rights Watch said the kingdom carried out 345 executions in 2024 and 356 in 2025, both record totals. It said the increase in 2025 was driven in large part by executions for non-lethal drug-related offenses, including cases involving foreign nationals.

United Nations experts have repeatedly criticized that practice. Human Rights Watch said the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and other U.N. bodies have urged Saudi Arabia to impose a moratorium on executions for drug-related offenses, saying such crimes do not meet the international standard of the “most serious crimes,” the narrow category for which international law permits the death penalty.

The immediate concern, Human Rights Watch said, is that dozens of Ethiopian detainees in Khamis Mushait could be executed soon. Its report called for urgent intervention as fears mount inside the facility after the three April 21 executions formally announced by Saudi authorities.