"Saudi Arabia begins repatriation of detained workers to Ethiopia," 27 Jan 2021

Saudi Arabia has begun repatriating thousands of Ethiopians who have been held in detention centres that have been described as "hellish" and "squalid"...

The first batch of 296 returnees had been detained in the notorious Shumaisi detention centre near Jeddah, which holds 16,000 Ethiopian migrants...

"Overall, there are roughly 40,000 Ethiopian migrants ready to go back home," said Tedla. "For now it will be 1,000 returnees per week. But hopefully, we will be given the green light to increase the numbers."

[Ethiopia's deputy consul general in Jeddah, Nebiyu] Tedla added that detainees from the Jizan detention centre, near the Saudi border with Yemen, would also be flown home...

the Ethiopian government had tried to silence migrant workers who were exposing poor conditions inside Saudi detention centres...

[warning] Ethiopians of “legal repercussions” if they continued to upload photos and videos from the detention centres on social media.