Originally published on March 3, 2014
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At least one detainee was killed in a clash between undocumented foreign workers and Saudi security forces in a holding facility near Mecca on Monday evening (March 3).
The riot erupted at the al-Shemaisi detention centre, which holds thousands of foreign workers, mostly from Yemen and Ethiopia.
The detainees were waiting for their documents to be processed when a group of workers began protesting, damaging property on site. As security forces intervened to control the riot, one worker was trampled to death and nine others were injured.
Reports do not explain why the riot broke out and provided no details on the nationalities of the affected workers.
Thousands arrive in Saudi Arabia each year to seek work in the largest oil-exporter in the world. In an effort to cut off the supply of cheap, illegal workers to the black market, Riyadh has launched a crackdown to expel workers who failed to update their visas after an amnesty period ended in November.
"Saudi authorities have spent months branding foreign workers as criminals in the media, and stirring up anti-migrant sentiment to justify the labor crackdown," Joe Stork, the Middle East director of the New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a Fars News Agency report. "The Saudi government needs to rein in Saudi citizens who are attacking foreign workers."
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