Saudi Arabia - End Secrecy, End Suffering

"The police informed me that I will be kept in custody until I agreed to sign the [confession] prepared by them. To escape from unbearable assault, I agreed... Now I have completed more than two years and three months in jail without knowing anything about the punishment or my fate..." - A letter from Amaladasan, an Indian national, who was detained in Safwa in the Eastern province in 1994 on charges of having sexual intercourse with a woman who was not his wife. His subsequent fate is not known.

Migrant Workers

1. A system of injustice 2. No dissent allowed 3. Torture and ill-treatment 4. The death penalty 5. Women's rights 6. Migrant workers 7. Arming the torturers

A Filipino returned to his home in mid-1999. Shortly afterwards, a colleague entered the room accompanied by two mutawa’een and a policeman. His colleague, a Christian like himself, was in handcuffs and said, “Brother, I am sorry.” Before he could say more, one of the mutawa’een hit him in the face and told him to be quiet. Without explanation the mutawa’een and the policeman searched the room and found a Bible and other Christian material.

The Filipino was then taken without explanation to the office of the mutawa’een, where he was accused of being a preacher. When he denied the allegation, one of the mutawa’een became angry, put one of his wrists in handcuffs and beat him in the ribs. "He shouted in Arabic, ’Refute your God', and spat in my face." The accusation that he was a preacher turned out to be the nearest he ever came to knowing the reason for his detention.

Such testimonies highlight the vulnerability of foreign workers in Saudi Arabia to arbitrary arrest and detention, as well as a range of other human rights violations.

The opportunity to work in a wealthy country is an economic lifeline for millions of men and women from Asia, Africa and Latin America. For some, labour migration is a way to get ahead. For many, the earnings that they send home are the only way to support the families and communities they leave behind.

Saudi Arabia is one of the world's largest employers of migrant workers. Approximately one-quarter to one-third of the population of Saudi Arabia and seventy percent of the labour force are migrant workers, primarily from Asia.

Many of the foreign nationals living in Saudi Arabia enjoy good salaries and working conditions. Others, however, quickly find that the dream of a better life working in Saudi Arabia has turned sour.

Foreign nationals working in Saudi Arabia are highly vulnerable to abuse by their employers and the state, in part because there are few legal safeguards to protect them and there are no trade unions or independent human rights organizations to defend their rights. If arrested they may be tricked into signing a confession in Arabic, a language they may not understand. Migrant workers may also be unable to contact anyone to intervene on their behalf, including consular staff. This is particularly true if they are nationals of developing countries, who know few people in Saudi Arabia in a position of authority.

James Rebenito, a Filipino, was convicted of murder and executed in June 1996. He was held incommunicado for over two years and no information about his case was made available to his family or the Philippine embassy until January 1995, when the Saudi Arabian Foreign Ministry informed the Philippine embassy that he had "confessed" to murder. Requests by the embassy to visit him, have access to his file and attend any trial proceedings, were all turned down. His wife, who was allowed to see him once before his execution, told Amnesty International that he proclaimed his innocence and said he had witnesses to prove it. There were apparently two witnesses near the scene of the murder and another person was with James Rebenito throughout the day of the crime. All were questioned by the police, but none was called to testify at the trial.

Foreign workers who try to practice religions other than the officially sanctioned Sunni Islam face arrest, detention, ill-treatment and deportation. Christians, Sikhs and members of other religious minorities have suffered such fates for holding informal private worship groups in their homes or for possessing religious literature.

Many foreign workers have been detained for prolonged periods and ill-treated simply for visa irregularities. Those accused of serious criminal offences face torture, including amputations and flogging, and the death penalty, always without the right to defence and sometimes without access to their consulate. Detainees who do not understand Arabic are sometimes denied interpreters and translations of legal documents. As a result, migrant workers may spend years in prison not knowing what charges are laid against them, what sentence they are serving or even that they face execution.

For women migrant workers, the vulnerability is compounded by overt discrimination against women in society and in the legal system in Saudi Arabia. In addition, some of the most common forms of employment for women migrants, such as domestic work, leave women highly vulnerable to abuse by their employers.