Almost 3,000 Ethiopians were deported by the Saudi security services back to Ethiopia in the first ten days of April and a leaked UN memo said a further 200,000 were to follow. A moratorium was then placed on the deportations after international pressure was brought to bear on Riyadh.

The Sunday Telegraph has found many of the migrants who were slated for deportation five months ago have been left to rot in disease-ridden detention centres. “We have been left to die here,” said one, who said he has been locked in a room the size of a school classroom and not been outside since March.

“Covid19? Who knows?, he added, “There are a lot of diseases here. Everyone is sick here; everyone has something.”

The images smuggled out show many of those held are plagued by disfiguring skin infections. They claim they have received no medical treatment.

“We eat a tiny piece of bread in the day and rice in the evening. There’s almost no water, and the toilets are overflowing. It spills over to where we eat. The smell, we grow accustomed to. But there’s over a hundred of us in a room, and the heat is killing us,” said another young Ethiopian man.