The New York-based watchdog charged that police had set fire on March 9 to a garbage dump in which 25 undocumented Yemenis were hiding, in an apparent bid to force them out.
"Claims that the police deliberately burned the shelter of Yemeni migrants are shocking and show total disregard for human life," Sarah Leah Whitson, HRW Middle East director, said in a statement.
HRW said the Saudi government has claimed it had rescued the Yemeni victims from an accidental fire, suggesting that the victims’ allegations are not credible because they are merely undocumented garbage pickers.
Burn victim Majid Shami told HRW that police officers launched a flammable substance that started a fire which engulfed the hiding migrants in the dump.
"We all came out burning … They shot into the air to prevent us from fleeing," he said, claiming that burn victims were taken for interrogation instead of to hospital.
HRW said that only after being questioned were the burn victims taken to hospitals and that, soon after, all 18 were deported to neighbouring Yemen.
HRW urged the Saudi government to promptly investigate claims that police officers set the fire and denied the wounded migrants immediate access to hospital.
"The Saudi government’s inaction in the face of this alleged police inhumanity is outrageous," Whitson said. "Riyadh has a responsibility to conduct a criminal investigation."
Yemen is a neighbour of Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, but is one of the poorest countries in the world, with many of its people seeking work in neighbouring Gulf countries.
