From: HRW
Mohamed, a 22-year old Somali, was in Saudi Arabia and made a living
washing cars. In late 2013, due to increasing government pressure on
employers of undocumented workers, Mohammed was fired. In December,
after several weeks without a job, he handed himself over to the police.
He spent the next 57 days detained in appalling conditions. “In the
first detention center in Riyadh, there was so little food, we fought
over it,” he said. “So the strongest ate the most. Guards told us to
face the wall and then beat our backs with metal rods. In the second
place, there were two toilets for 1,200 people, including dozens of
children.” Mohamed is now in Mogadishu, the Somali capital. He is one of
more than 25,000 Somalis, including hundreds of women and children,
rounded up by the Saudi authorities and expelled back to their war-torn
home country since the last month of 2013.
The rash of deportations has continued in early 2014, with hundreds
forced to leave each week in February and March to date. And the Saudis
are expected to expel thousands more. These moves are part of a campaign
by Saudi labor authorities and security services to arrest and deport
undocumented migrants from several countries, a process that the
government contends will open private-sector employment opportunities to
Saudi Arabian citizens.
Nine recent deportees who were interviewed by Human Rights Watch
researchers in Mogadishu in early February described conditions in Saudi
detention similar to those experienced by Mohamed. They spoke of severe
overcrowding, little air or daylight, poor sanitary facilities,
sweltering heat in some cases and cold in others, and limited access to
medical assistance. Some said they had developed chronic health
problems, including persistent coughing, as a result of their time in
custody. Children are sometimes detained with their relatives but some
have also been separated from their parents or caregivers.
Saladu, a 35-year old mother of two, was detained for nine days with
her two children, ages 7 and 9, and her sister’s three children in Jidda
before deportation. “The room we stayed in with 150 other women and
children was extremely hot and there was no air conditioning,” she said.
“The children were sick. My son was vomiting and his stomach was very
bloated. There were no mattresses. People just slept on the floor.”
Most of the recent deportees described inadequate food of poor quality
in detention. Several said people in the cells fought over space as well
as food. “There were a lot of people in the room, some little
children,” said Raiza, 45, detained for three months with her daughter,
who suffers from mental health problems. “You would have to fight to get
your space.”
Others said they were subjected to beatings and other abusive treatment
during the deportation procedures. Sadiyo said she was in the ninth
month of her pregnancy and was standing in line at the Jidda airport
when a Saudi policewoman beat her with a baton on her back. She went
into labor and gave birth on the cabin floor of the plane as it flew to
Mogadishu.
Given the number of people being deported and the gravity of the
situation in Somalia, Saudi Arabia may be violating its obligation under
international law not to send anyone back to a place where their life
or freedom would be threatened or where they would face persecution,
torture, or inhuman or degrading treatment. Mohamed, for example, left
Baidoa in south-central Somalia in 2008, fleeing conflict and economic
stagnation. The reasons for his flight remain unchanged: fighting
persists in many parts of south-central Somalia, government control is
severely limited, and the armed Islamist group, al-Shabaab, controls
large sections of the territory.
Mass Expulsions
Somalis in Saudi Arabia are part of one of the largest migrant labor
populations in the world. At least 7.5 million migrant foreign
workers—more than half the work force—fill the country’s manual,
clerical and service jobs.
Since 2011, increasingly conscious of unemployment among the
native-born population, Saudi officials have had a quota system for
foreigners in the private sector. In April 2013, Saudi police and labor
officials opened the nationwide campaign to arrest and expel
undocumented workers, including workers without valid residency or work
permits, or workers caught working for an employer other than their
legal sponsor. As part of the campaign, police raided office buildings
and set up checkpoints on main roads. Following an outcry from
businessmen and foreign missions, King ‘Abdallah suspended the expulsion
campaign. He announced a “grace period” for workers to correct their
status or leave the country, which he extended on July 2 for another
three months.
On November 4, Saudi authorities resumed raids and mass arrests,
detaining at least 20,000 workers in the first two days alone, according
to the Jidda-based Saudi Gazette. Several Somali deportees
said they had handed themselves over to the police, fearing that they
would be beaten up if they did not.
The government effort also precipitated several attacks on undocumented
workers. The most violent assaults occurred on the evening of November 9
in areas around the Manfouha neighborhood of southern Riyadh, which
hosts a large Ethiopian population.
Two Ethiopian migrant workers told Human Rights Watch they saw a group
of people armed with sticks, swords, machetes and firearms, apparently
Saudi Arabian citizens, set upon foreign workers that night. “On the
first night it was both the police and shabab [“young men” in
Arabic] who were attacking and beating Ethiopians. When we went out of
our homes to protect them, the police were there, but they didn’t let us
to do anything,” one worker said. He also said he saw a large circle of
Ethiopians crying around several dead and wounded migrants. Another
migrant from Manfouha said that a group of 20 men with machetes and
pistols broke down the door of a house in which he had taken refuge and
attacked the people inside.
The Saudi Interior Ministry announced on January 21 that it had
deported more than 250,000 people since November, including workers from
Somalia, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, India, the Philippines, Nepal, Pakistan
and Yemen.[1]
Undocumented Workers
It is easy for foreigners to end up undocumented in Saudi Arabia. Human
Rights Watch research indicates that Saudi Arabia’s labor system fuels
exploitation and abuse and ultimately drives many foreign workers to
seek under-the-table work in violation of labor laws.[2]
“Ra’id,” a 24-year old Yemeni worker, told Human Rights Watch that he
entered Saudi Arabia legally after receiving a visa to work for a cargo
company. After he arrived, he said, he could not find his sponsor and
had to take up off-the-books work at a gas station. He finally located
his sponsor, who demanded 4,000 Saudi riyals ($1,066) for a residency
and work permit, telling “Ra’id” that the cargo company was a legal
fiction. After “Ra’id” paid the money, he said, the Saudi Arabian
sponsor failed to provide him with a residency card, and threatened to
report him to authorities if he called back. “Ra‘id” eventually decided
to leave, paying another 4,000 riyals for an exit visa. “I waited ten
months with no residency,” he said. “I feel so depressed. This is no
life.”
Under the kafala (sponsorship) system, an employer assumes
responsibility for a hired migrant worker and must grant him or her
explicit permission before the worker can enter Saudi Arabia, transfer
employment or leave the country. An employer is also responsible for
keeping workers’ work and residency permits up to date. If the employer
fails to take these measures, the worker pays the price.
Employers often abuse this power over workers, in violation of Saudi
law. Employers confiscate passports, withhold wages and force migrants
to work against their will or on exploitative terms. Over the past ten
years, Human Rights Watch has documented numerous cases in which workers
were unable to escape from abusive conditions or even to return home
after their contracts ended because their employer denied them
permission to leave the country.[3]
It appears that many workers, unwilling to remain in an abusive
situation, choose to violate labor laws by seeking work under better
terms with another employer. Others are simply stuck in Saudi Arabia,
unable to leave due to exit visa requirements, as they work to sustain
themselves and their families back home.
Rampant corruption within the kafala system makes the
situation worse. Thousands of foreign workers in Saudi Arabia work
illegally under the “free visa” arrangement, in which Saudi Arabians
posing as sponsoring employers import workers to staff businesses that
do not exist, as in the case of “Ra’id.” Workers who enter Saudi Arabia
under this scheme work from the beginning outside the regulatory system
for companies that are happy to avoid official scrutiny while the worker
pays regular “fees” to the free-visa “sponsor” to renew residency and
work permits.Authorities consider these workers as undocumented, and
they therefore have no ability to seek redress for abuses they
suffer.Migrants caught working under this scheme are subject to arrest
and deportation. It is unknown whether authorities have prosecuted any
Saudi Arabians posing as employers for visa corruption, but in December
Labor Minister ‘Adil Faqih announced that those who hire foreign workers
but do not provide a job will face prosecution and be classified as
“human traffickers.”[4]
Ongoing Violence in Somalia
The plight of Somalis being deported from Saudi Arabia is particularly
alarming given the situation on the ground in Somalia, especially the
fighting in many south-central parts of the country, where al-Shabaab
continues to control much of the territory. A new offensive by African
Union forces against al-Shabaab is underway. Many civilians in those
areas remain in dire need and the UN has raised concerns that renewed
fighting could hamper access of humanitarian relief workers to combat
zones.
In Mogadishu, hundreds of thousands of people live in grim conditions
in camps for internally displaced people. Abuses in these camps are
rampant.[5]
Members of state security forces and armed groups have raped, beaten
and otherwise maltreated displaced Somalis, particularly since an influx
of people into the capital during the 2011 famine.
In January 2013 the Somali government announced plans to relocate tens
of thousands of displaced people in Mogadishu to better accommodations.
These plans stalled primarily due to the government’s inability to
provide basic protection in the planned relocation sites. The abuses
persist. A February Human Rights Watch report documents high levels of
rape and sexual abuse against women and girls in Mogadishu in 2013,
particularly among displaced women who are attacked inside and near
camps for displaced people.[6]
Al-Shabaab carries out bombings and other attacks in Mogadishu. On
February 13, al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the car bombing that
day outside Mogadishu’s airport, apparently targeting a UN convoy, that
killed at least six people, including two civilians recently deported
from Saudi Arabia. Such attacks either directly targeting civilians or
killing civilians are not unusual, but are often overlooked by the
international media unless the casualty figures are particularly large,
like an April 2013 bombing of a Mogadishu courthouse that killed more
than 30 people, or aimed at foreign targets, like the June 2013 attack
that devastated the UN compound.
In areas under its control, al-Shabaab commits serious abuses against
civilians, including forced recruitment of children and attacks on
people perceived to support the Somali government.[7] On March 5, al-Shabaab publicly executed three alleged spies in Barawe, one of the group’s strongholds.
Many of those being deported from Jidda are not from Mogadishu but from
other parts of south-central Somalia.Twenty-six-year-old Salad, for
example, was deported from Jidda to Mogadishu in mid-January. Originally
from Bakool, a region that is still largely under al-Shabaab control,
he spent his first night sleeping on the streets in the capital.
The risks to people sent to Mogadishu without a local support network
and lacking the survival skills needed in today’s Somalia are very
real.In November, Said, a 26-year old who was sent back by the
Netherlands, was injured in an attack on a hotel in central Mogadishu
days after his return. Said, who was born in the embattled city of
Kismayo, in southern Somalia, had tried unsuccessfully to seek asylum.
He had not set foot in Somalia for two decades and had never been to
Mogadishu.
Legal Standards
Saudi Arabia has not ratified the 1951 Refugee Convention and does not
have an asylum system. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR),
which has a small office in Riyadh, is not allowed by the Saudi
government to receive or review refugee claims, a process known as
“refugee status determination.” The Saudi authorities have no other
formal procedures allowing Somalis or others who fear persecution or
other harm in their home countries to seek protection in Saudi Arabia.
No country, Saudi Arabia included, is permitted to round up tens of
thousands of people and expel them to a country wracked by violence
without giving them the opportunity to seek protection. Customary
international law prohibits refoulement, the return of anyone
to a place where their life or freedom would be threatened or where they
would face persecution, torture, or inhuman or degrading treatment.The
protection from refoulement is not weakened in any way if
persons left their home country for economic or other reasons besides
war. On January 17, UNHCR issued guidelines on returns to Somalia,
stating in particular that “south-central Somalia is a very dangerous
place.” The international body called on countries not to return anyone
to Somalia before interviewing them and ensuring that they face no
threat of persecution or other serious harm if returned. Both UNHCR and
the International Organization for Migration say that Saudi Arabia made
no such determination before sending the Somalis back. UNHCR itself does
not have access to detainees prior to deportation.
At a minimum, Saudi Arabia should immediately introduce procedures
allowing refugees, including those from Somalia, to seek asylum or other
forms of protection. If Saudi Arabia identifies anyone at risk of harm
in Somalia, the authorities should give these Somalis secure legal
status and should work closely with UNHCR, if needed. Children should
not be detained because of their immigration status, and unaccompanied
children—those traveling alone without caregivers—shouldnot be held with
unrelated adults.
It would not take much for the Saudi authorities to ensure that people
from countries in the midst of conflicts do not bear the brunt of
restrictive policies toward foreigners. As Salad, the young man from
Bakool, eloquently put it: “Even though we are a country still in
conflict, we still deserve to be treated humanely.”
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