Middle East - Saudi Arabia: Saudi authorities are concealing rampant abuses and pitiful conditions at migrant detention centers while continuing to arrest thousands of African and Yemeni migrants, a London-based online news outlet revealed.

According to Middle East Eye, Ethiopian migrants awaiting deportation said Saudi authorities have conducted mass searches of the centres, confiscating phones and any devices that could be used to relay images of their suffering to the outside world.

The sources said the crackdown was an attempt to prevent their conditions from being broadcast to the world during Ramadan, which would risk criticism and uproar in the Muslim world during the holy month.

Police have also ordered people set for deportation to sign non-disclosure agreements forbidding them from talking to journalists about their experiences.

The number of Ethiopian detainees held at various migrant detention centres has swollen in recent months. In an attempt to ease the burden, Saudi authorities reached an agreement with Ethiopia in March to fly out at least 100,000 Ethiopians, many of whom were detained in waves of anti-migrant crackdowns last year.

Ethiopians held in the centres have told MEE that they are given little to eat and are held for months in putrid, overcrowded rooms.

"People are going mad here. There is little food and many of us haven't been outdoors in almost nine months," said Nebil, a detainee in Riyadh. "We used to get a piece of bread three times a day. Since Ramadan, we get it only once, at night."

The Saudi foreign ministry has not responded to a request for comment.

'Disease ridden'
In 2020, smartphones smuggled into two migrant detention centres captured graphic images depicting hundreds of emaciated African men, some appearing to be on the brink of death, in cramped quarters where sewage flowed and disease was rampant.

Rights groups confirmed that abuse and deaths were commonplace at these centres, and in October 2020 the European Union parliament passed a resolution condemning Saudi Arabia for its mistreatment of migrants. 

The uproar eventually led to tens of thousands of migrants being repatriated throughout 2021, many of whom are struggling to cope with enduring trauma. 

But many remained behind in the facilities, with Ethiopia's government preoccupied last year by the county's civil war and rebel fighters threatening to attack the capital city.

Eventually, the outcry of social media users and relatives in Ethiopia is believed to have pushed Ethiopian officials to send a high-level delegation to Riyadh earlier this year to begin negotiating the return of their citizens.

Since an agreement was signed in March, thousands of Ethiopians have returned to their homeland, with another 1,031 landing in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on Wednesday.

However, mass arrests by Saudi authorities continue to target thousands more, with 15,000 migrants, almost all of them Ethiopians and Yemenis, detained in a single week in March alone.

As a result, detention centres aren't emptying, and the abuse persists, according to detainees.