At least 65 Ethiopian migrants are at imminent risk of execution in Saudi Arabia for drug-related offenses, Human Rights Watch said today. Saudi authorities executed three others on April 21, 2026.
"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," said Nadia Hardman, senior refugee and migrant rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. "Saudi Arabia's partners should urgently intervene before it is too late."
Human Rights Watch interviewed three informed sources about the cases of three men held in the Khamis Mushait detention facility in the Asir region of Saudi Arabia. The sources said that all three explained they were refugees, having fled the 2020-2022 armed conflict in Ethiopia's northern Tigray region, where the humanitarian situation remains dire.
The sources said that the three men used the dangerous migration route across the Gulf of Aden, through Yemen, and into Saudi Arabia to seek work. They said the men felt compelled to carry khat, a mild stimulant plant native to parts of East Africa, to make money for the journey and to survive. In at least one case, the sources said, a smuggler forced a man to carry the plant from Yemen into Saudi Arabia as a condition of facilitating his journey.
Cathinone, the active ingredient in khat, is banned in Saudi Arabia but legally permissible and culturally consumed in parts of Ethiopia, as well as in Yemen. The sources said that none of the men knew that carrying khat into and within Saudi Arabia was illegal.
The sources said that Saudi security authorities intercepted and arrested the three men between 2023 and 2024, in the Abaha region, while they were working, and transferred them to various detention facilities, and finally to Khamis Mushait. The sources indicated the men had two or three extremely brief group court hearings, some by video link. The men had no legal representation or translators, and none were told the charges against them.
The sources said that security officials beat the men during the hearings and forced them to sign documents they did not understand. A translator appeared only in the final court hearing, solely to inform them that they had been found guilty of drug smuggling and were being sentenced to death. The sources quoted the judge as saying. "You will be an example to others."
The men have been held inside Khamis Mushait for over two years with no opportunity to appeal. They have no set execution date, but they are among approximately 65 other Ethiopian men inside their cell all sentenced to death for drug-related offenses, as well as Saudi men held for murder and other serious crimes. The sources indicated the men believe hundreds of other Ethiopians are in other cells. Media have reported that over 200 Ethiopian men are awaiting the death penalty in Khamis Mushait. Human Rights Watch cannot verify this number.
On April 21, informed sources said, Saudi prison guards took three fellow detainees from their cell and told them they were going to a court hearing. Prison guards later told the remaining detainees that the three men had been executed, and they should inform their family members, creating panic among the others. The detainees have not received any visitors since the start of their detention and have not had any communication with Ethiopian consular officials.
The informed sources quoted one man as saying: "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."
On April 21, the Ministry of Interior issued a statement announcing the executions of three Ethiopian nationals for "participating in smuggling hashish" into Saudi Arabia.
Saudi authorities have twice set a new record for the highest number of executions in one year since monitoring began, with 345 executions in 2024 and 356 in 2025. Executions of foreign nationals for nonlethal drug crimes drove the surge in executions in 2025.
Saudi Arabia has executed more than 2,000 people since King Salman bin Abdulaziz took the throne on January 23, 2015, and appointed his son Mohammed bin Salman crown prince on June 21, 2017. Despite a 2018 pledge by the crown prince to significantly curtail the use of the death penalty, executions have accelerated, including the execution of child defendants, disproportionate executions of foreign nationals, and politically motivated executions of people exercising their right to freedom of expression.
Human Rights Watch opposes the death penalty in all circumstances because of its inherent cruelty. Saudi Arabia's use of the death penalty is contrary to international human rights law, which upholds every human being's "inherent right to life" and limits the death penalty to "the most serious crimes," typically crimes resulting in death or serious bodily harm.
In 2025, nonlethal drug-related offenses account for approximately 68 percent of the total executions. The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention condemned Saudi Arabia's practice, finding that executions for drug-related offences are incompatible with international human rights law and fall outside the scope of the "most serious crimes." The working group urged Saudi authorities to reinstate a moratorium and emphasized that imposing the death penalty for such offenses constitutes a clear violation of international legal standards.
Hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians live and work in Saudi Arabia. While many migrate for economic reasons, many have fled serious human rights abuses by their government, including during the recent, brutal armed conflict in northern Ethiopia. Human Rights Watch has for years documented a wide range of human rights abuses against migrants taking the same route.
The detention of migrants in deplorable facilities in Saudi Arabia is a longstanding problem which Human Rights Watch has found amounts to inhuman and degrading treatment. In 2023, Human Rights Watch found that Saudi border guards had killed at least hundreds of Ethiopian migrants and asylum seekers who tried to cross the Yemen-Saudi border, which, if committed as part of a Saudi government policy to murder migrants, would be a crime against humanity.
Saudi Arabia should immediately cancel the death penalty for Ethiopian migrants and review all sentences in line with Saudi Arabia's international obligations, including the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the UN Convention against Torture.
The Ethiopian Foreign Affairs Ministry and its representatives in Saudi Arabia should urgently intervene with their Saudi counterparts and at a minimum ensure that their nationals receive immediate consular assistance. Saudi Arabia should ratify the 1951 Refugee Convention and establish asylum procedures consistent with international standard.
Concerned governments should use their leverage to press Saudi Arabia to abolish the death penalty or, at the very least, to reinstate a moratorium on executions for drug-related offences.
"Saudi Arabia's extensive use of the death penalty is intertwined with fundamental and systemic violations of defendants' rights to due process and a fair trial," Hardman said. "The death sentences should be commuted and the death penalty abolished."
