Between January 2016 and December 2021, 626 foreign nationals were sentenced to death or executed in Persian Gulf nations. The details of the cases behind this statistic give an insight into the exploitative work conditions of foreign workers, and the failures of the host countries and sending governments in safeguarding their rights. It is a tale of human rights abuses in the criminal justice system, from criminal investigation to conditions of incarceration.
Bahrain, for example, is an Islamic constitutional monarchy that retains the death sentence by firing squad for offences such as murder, rape, and drug trafficking. The last known execution occurred in 2019 (when three people were executed). No new death sentences were recorded in 2021.
But, foreign nationals are over-represented on death row, especially for murder, and when looking at the details of the cases, it appears the crimes are often motivated by financial hardship related to their poor employment conditions. Once sentenced, they are subjected to conditions that are tantamount to torture.
