Saudi Arabia Has Executed at Least 19 Bangladeshis Since 2010

DHAKA: Saudi Arabia has executed at least 19 Bangladeshi nationals since 2010, highlighting concerns over the use of capital punishment against migrant workers in the kingdom, according to human rights reports. The latest executions involved a Bangladeshi man and a woman who were executed in the holy city of Makkah on October 14. The executions reportedly took place without the Bangladesh diplomatic mission or the families being aware of the death sentences, triggering widespread concern in Bangladesh.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has summoned the Saudi ambassador in Dhaka, handed him a diplomatic note and sought details of the judicial proceedings. Civil society groups have called for a formal diplomatic protest and an investigation into the roles of the foreign ministry, the expatriates’ welfare ministry and the Bangladesh Embassy in Riyadh.

The groups have also urged the government to strengthen protections for Bangladeshi migrant workers. More than 10 million Bangladeshis work abroad and send home substantial remittances, yet migrant workers remain vulnerable and inadequately protected, they said.

According to the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights (ESOHR), Saudi Arabia executed at least 16 Bangladeshis between 2010 and 2021. The figure was reported in its 2022 publication, Bloodshed and Lies: Mohammed bin Salman’s Kingdom of Executions. A subsequent ESOHR report documented at least one Bangladeshi national executed in 2025.

ESOHR recorded 1,243 executions in Saudi Arabia between 2010 and 2021, including 490 foreign nationals. Pakistanis accounted for 164 executions, followed by Yemenis at 92, Syrians at 58, Egyptians at 26, Jordanians at 25, Nigerians at 17, Ethiopians at 15 and Chadians at 14.

Amnesty International has also documented a sharp rise in executions in the kingdom. The organisation recorded at least 122 executions in 2024 and 356 in 2025. Between January 1 and June 22, 2026, Saudi authorities carried out 96 executions, according to the figures cited by Amnesty.

In a statement issued on June 22, Amnesty said Saudi Arabia had executed 2,084 people between January 2014 and June 2026, placing the kingdom among the world’s leading users of capital punishment. Foreign nationals have been disproportionately affected by drug-related executions, accounting for 75 per cent of such cases in 2024 and 78 per cent in 2025, Amnesty reported.

ESOHR said drug trafficking and smuggling accounted for most cases involving foreign nationals. Its report noted that many people executed for drug offences were low-level couriers, often from impoverished backgrounds, who had swallowed or concealed drugs. Some were reportedly victims of human trafficking or coercion by criminal networks.

The report also documented cases involving foreign nationals, particularly female domestic workers, executed for murder. It said allegations against domestic workers sometimes arose in circumstances involving severe workplace mistreatment, domestic accidents or self-defence against physical or sexual abuse by employers. Foreign nationals have also faced discretionary death sentences for non-lethal offences, including gang formation, robbery and sexual offences, and, in rare cases, sorcery or witchcraft, according to the report.

“Saudi Arabia continues to execute people for offences that should never be punished by death under international law and standards,” said Dana Ahmed, a Middle East researcher at Amnesty International, in the June 22 statement. Ahmed said the executions reflected a concerning global trend in which punitive drug policies were increasingly contributing to the use of capital punishment.

“The international community must speak out unequivocally against these unlawful executions, and Saudi Arabia must immediately establish a moratorium on the use of this cruel and irreversible punishment as a first critical step towards abolition,” she said.