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Amnesty International Condemns UAE Arbitrary Detention, Deportation Of Black Africans

Published

4 years ago

October 25, 2021

Amnesty International (AI) has condemned the United Arab Emirates (UAE) treatment of Black Africans in strong terms.

The damnation came as Nigerians hailed the UAE for exposing the financiers of Boko Haram and terrorism.

In a statement, AI said on the night of June 22 and 25, police in Abu Dhabi broke into the homes of hundreds of migrant workers as they slept, targeting Black Africans in racially motivated arrests.

They were detained for weeks in al-Wathba prison and subsequently deported them without due process.

In detention, the authorities subjected them to inhuman and degrading treatment and stripped them of nearly all their belongings.

In September, AI interacted with 18 victims of the raids and deportations, comprising 11 Cameroonians, 5 Nigerians, 1 Ugandan, and 1 Ghanaian – 8 women and 10 men.

The raids targeted Black Africans in hundreds of flats in al-Wathba. The few Asian nationals arrested with them were taken because they happened to be living in the same flats as Africans.

AI noted that the arrests and subsequent interrogations presented a consistent pattern of racially motivated, arbitrary arrests followed by incommunicado detention for weeks on end in inhumane, overcrowded and unsanitary conditions, followed by arbitrary deportation.

After news of the deportations, the UAE’s Ministry of Interior, on September 3, explained that the arrests “involving 376 women and men were carried out as part of legal procedures to address crimes related to human trafficking”.

AI quoted the UAE as saying: “Those arrested were found to be involved in these crimes, as the UAE was proactive in enacting a comprehensive law to combat human trafficking and preserve the rights of all groups of society in a way that protects victims and punishes violators of their rights while deterring those who commit such crimes.”

This also carries the risk of forcibly returning individuals to a country where they face the risk of serious human rights violations, in other words refoulement, hence an additional risk of serious human rights violation.

Amnesty International called on the UAE to “immediately halt racially motivated detentions and deportations and to urgently provide restitution to the hundreds of African nationals detained and deported in the operation launched on the morning of 25 June 2021”.

The rights organizations stressed that racially driven raids and mass detentions are not in line with global agreement on human rights protection.

Kabirat Olokunde from Nigeria, deported on August 22, was living in the Lagym building.

She said the police had not allowed her to dress and handcuffed her despite the fact that she was in her sleeping shorts.

“I was asking them: Why am I here? I’m not a criminal. I have my papers. Why are you bringing me here? They told me: Emirates give, Emirates take. I was also molested,” Kabirat told Amnesty.

“Those idiots were touching my boobs. I told them, you touch [me] again I will slap you.”

“Ricky” from Cameroon recalled that in his prison cell of 62 people, there was a single non-African, a Bangladeshi man.

“That’s why he found himself in this mess. They asked him: Why can’t you look for your own nationality, or any Asian nationality, and live with them? Why did you go to stay with Africans?”, he recounted.

Amnesty International added that all those interviewed described the same pattern of racial targeting in the apprehensions.

Related Topics:Amnesty International black Africand

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Welcome Home, Israel Confirms Return Of 20 Hostages From Gaza

Published

1 day ago

October 13, 2025

Editor

Israel said that the last 20 living hostages released by Hamas on Monday had arrived in the country.

“Welcome home,” the foreign ministry wrote in a series of posts on X, hailing the return of Matan Angrest, Gali Berman, Ziv Berman, Elkana Bohbot, Rom Braslavski, Nimrod Cohen, David Cunio, Ariel Cunio, Evyatar David, Guy Gilboa Dalal, Maxim Herkin, Eitan Horn, Segev Kalfon, Bar Kuperstein, Omri Miran, Eitan Mor, Yosef Haim Ohana, Alon Ohel, Avinatan Or and Matan Zangauker.

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20 Members Of Gang Blacklisted By US Escape Guatemala Prison

Published

2 days ago

October 13, 2025

Editor

Twenty members of a gang designated a “foreign terrorist organisation” by the United States have escaped from detention in Guatemala, a prison chief said Sunday.

The members of the Barrio 18 gang “evaded security controls” at the Fraijanes II facility, prison director Ludin Godinez said at a news conference.

He received “an intelligence report” on Friday warning about the “possible escape” from the prison, which is southeast of the capital, Guatemala City.

Godinez said they were investigating possible acts of corruption.

Washington last month blacklisted Barrio 18, an El Salvador-based gang which has a reputation for violence and extortion, as part of its crackdown on drug trafficking.

The US embassy in Guatemala condemned the prison escape as “utterly unacceptable.”

“The United States designated members of this heinous group as the terrorists they are and will hold accountable anyone who has provided, provides, or decides to provide material support to these fugitives or other gang members,” the embassy said on X.

It called on the Guatemalan government to “act immediately and vigorously to recapture these terrorists.”

According to Interior Minister Francisco Jimenez, there are about 12,000 gang members and collaborators in Guatemala, while another 3,000 are in prison.

The country’s homicide rate has increased from 16.1 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2024 to 17.65 this year, more than double the world average, according to the Centre for National Economic Research.

According to the Salvadoran government, the gangs Barrio 18 and Mara Salvatrucha, better known as MS-13, are responsible for the deaths of about 200,000 people over three decades.

The two gangs once controlled an estimated 80 percent of El Salvador, which had one of the highest homicide rates in the world.

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South Africa Bus Crash Kills 40 Including Malawi, Zimbabwe Nationals

Published

2 days ago

October 13, 2025

Editor

At least 40 people, including nationals of Malawi and Zimbabwe, were killed when a passenger bus rolled down an embankment in South Africa, a provincial transport minister said Monday.

The bus travelling to Zimbabwe crashed around 90 kilometres (55 miles) from the border on Sunday after the driver apparently lost control, Limpopo province transport minister Violet Mathye said.

“They are still working on the scene, but 40 bodies have already been confirmed to date,” Mathye told the Newzroom Afrika channel. The dead included a 10-month-old girl, she said.

Thirty-eight people were in hospital and rescuers were searching for other victims, she told eNCA media.

The bus was travelling from the southern city of Gqeberha, around 1,500 kilometres away, and its passengers included Malawians and Zimbabweans who were working in South Africa. The crash may have been caused by driver fatigue or a mechanical fault, the minister said.

South Africa has a sophisticated and busy road network with a high rate of road deaths, blamed mostly on speeding, reckless driving and unroadworthy vehicles.

AFP