The governments of Germany and the United States have downplayed their involvement in providing training to the Saudi border police, following allegations of mass killing of migrants by the Arab nation's security forces. 

In a statement, Germany said that training undertaken by the federal police service for the Saudi border force had been "discontinued after reports of possible massive human rights violations became known and, as a precaution, are no longer included in the current training programme [for Saudi security forces]," the daily British newspaper The Guardian reported last Friday, September 01. 

The German government further stressed: "At no point did any instruction or training by the federal police of the Saudi Arabian border guard take place in the border area between Saudi Arabia and Yemen."

It was not clear when exactly Germany ended the training of Saudi border forces. 

Read more: Crimes beyond imagination: Saudi border guards killed hundreds of migrants, HRW report says 

US also facing serious allegations

The Guardian also reported that both Germany and the US had been involved in "long-term training programs" for Saudi government forces, including for land and maritime security activities and for the Saudi border patrol force. 

The US State Department told The Guardian that it was "not aware of any Saudi land border guards currently participating in [US government] training."

"As far as we know, no land border guards completed the [US military] provided training from 2015 to 2023 for Saudi border guards. This training focused on maritime security and coastguard operations," the State Department added.

HRW shares video of alleged killings

The statements from the two governments come after Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a video last month showing Saudi forces shooting Ethiopian migrants at the Saudi-Yemen border.

The video went viral and caused an outcry from international rights groups. 

"Saudi border guards have killed at least hundreds of Ethiopian migrants and asylum seekers who tried to cross the Yemen-Saudi border between March 2022 and June 2023," HRW said in a statement on their website. 

"Since learning of these allegations, the United States has repeatedly raised this issue in international fora, including publicly at the UN security council in January 2023, and has continued to directly engage senior [Saudi] officials to urge Saudi Arabia conduct a thorough and transparent investigation into these allegations," a state department spokesperson told The Guardian. 

The government of Ethiopia meanwhile announced that it would launch a joint investigation into the reports along with the Saudi Arabian authorities. 

Read more: Ethiopia to investigate report of killings in Saudi Arabia 

Multiple accusations against Saudi Arabia 

Human rights organizations have long been documenting the killing of migrants by Saudi forces at the border between Yemen and Saudi Arabia. 

HRW says it has been documenting such border atrocities since 2014 but adds that attacks in recent months appear to have escalated both in terms of numbers and types of targeted killings. 

In a report released in August, HRW described the deliberate targeting of migrants and the brutality of the killings as follows:

"Saudi border guards have used explosive weapons and shot people at close range, including women and children, in a pattern that is widespread and systematic ... In some instances, Saudi border guards first asked survivors in which limb of their body they preferred to be shot, before shooting them at close range," the HRW report read.

If these actions were committed as part of a Saudi government policy, the killing of the migrants would qualify as a crime against humanity, HRW report added. 

"It is concerning that potentially both Germany and the US have been providing training to a border guard force implicated in grave human rights violations. We hope that the states make clear what support has been provided and what efforts have been made to ensure that their support did not perpetuate human rights abuses," HRW researcher and author of the watchdog’s report Nadia Hardman told InfoMigrants. 

Report alleges atrocities at hands of Saudi guards

The Mixed Migration Center, an independent research group, meanwhile released a report which also accuses Saudi security forces of "deliberately killing hundreds of migrants." 

Last October, experts commissioned by the UN Human Rights Council sent a letter to the Saudi government in Riyadh, alleging "a systematic pattern of large-scale, indiscriminate cross-border killings in which Saudi security forces fire artillery shells and small arms at migrants." 

In response, the Saudi government said that it would take the allegations seriously while "strongly" rejecting the UN account that the killings were "systematic" or "large-scale" in nature. 

Read more: Saudi Arabia: Are the killings of Ethiopians systematic? 

Fair game: guest workers in Saudi Arabia

An estimated 750,000 Ethiopian migrants live in Saudi Arabia. About 60% of them are estimated to have reached the Arab nation through irregular means.

Most female migrants are employed in domestic work while male migrants largely work in the agriculture sector. 

According to the European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE), a migration research organization, factors such as political instability, the protracted drought in the Horn of Africa brought on by the climate crisis, and sky-high inflation of over 30% all add up to the reasons why Ethiopians leave their country to seek out economic opportunities elsewhere. 

Last year, Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia agreed to repatriate more than 100,000 Ethiopians living in the country irregularly.