Sanaa calls for urgent int’l intervention regarding critical conditions of expatriates in Saudi Arabia

Last updated Jul 17, 2025 1:23 AM

SANAA, July 17 (YPA) – The Sanaa-based Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jamal Amer, called for urgent international intervention regarding the critical humanitarian and legal conditions facing a large number of Yemeni expatriates detained in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

This came in the letters he sent to both the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, the President of the United Nations Human Rights Council, Jürg Lauber, and the IOM Director General, Amy Pope.

The letters confirmed that the ministry in Sanaa had received numerous documented reports from citizens and their families, as well as from concerned civil society organizations, indicating practices that contravene the most basic principles of human rights and international law against Yemeni expatriates in Saudi Arabia. These practices focused in private on the arbitrary detention of many expatriates who were arrested without clear charges or being brought to trial within a reasonable timeframe in accordance with international legal standards.

The ministry’s letters indicated that practices attributed to complex administrative procedures related to deportation or the lack of a sponsor, which unlawfully deprive these individuals of their liberty and place their families in an extremely difficult humanitarian and economic situation. In addition, Yemeni diplomatic and consular missions in Saudi Arabia face difficulty in accessing detainees and depriving them of their fundamental right to defend themselves and to exercise of their internationally guaranteed legal rights.

The minister pointed out that these practices not only contravened fundamental principles of human rights and international law, but also exacerbated the humanitarian suffering of citizens already living under extremely harsh conditions due to the aggression and blockade in Yemen.
He stated that these conditions constituted a clear violation of numerous international instruments to which states were bound, including the principles related to the right to liberty, personal security, and a fair trial.

Minister Amer expressed the Sanaa government’s confidence in the vital role that the OHCHR, the United Nations Human Rights Council, and the IOM played in protecting and providing assistance to migrants and displaced persons around the world.

He called on these organizations to urgently and directly intervene to address this urgent humanitarian issue by urging the Saudi authorities to immediately release Yemeni detainees who have completed their sentences or who are being arbitrarily detained without legal basis, in accordance with their international obligations.