Dawit Giorgis
is a Visiting Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and
a former senior official in the Government of Ethiopia and David Andrew
Weinberg is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation penned the following commentary on The National Interest's website last November following the violence against Ethiopian migrant workers by Saudi's Police and its vigilantes who took the law in to their hands.
Last month,
three
Ethiopians were killed in the Saudi capital of Riyadh, as well as
one
foreign worker from Sudan. They died amid
vigilante
violence
and reports of
police
brutality after illegal immigrants in the slum of Manfouha
protested against a massive campaign of deportations that the
government launched this month. A
similar
demonstration was broken up in the city of Jeddah, and its
organizers arrested.
Meanwhile, large
groups of Ethiopians have been gathering for protests this week at
Saudi diplomatic institutions across the United States, including in
front of the Saudi Embassy in
Washington,
as well as the Kingdom’s consulates in
Atlanta,
Los
Angeles and in many parts of the world.
What is this big
controversy about?
Saudi officials
claim that the Ethiopians
