By
Maya Gebeily, BEIRUT Lebanon
Kabirat Olokunde, a Nigerian migrant worker, planned to spend her birthday with friends in the city of Abu Dhabi. Instead, she turned 28 in a frigid prison cell, one of about 700 Africans imprisoned by Emirati authorities without charge.
In
unparalleled mass arrests, the workers were jailed with "no legal
justification" on the night of June 24-25, and later started being
deported, said ImpACT International for Human Rights Policies and the
Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor.
"I
celebrated my birthday in chains, with no mattress," Olokunde said by
phone from the Nigerian city of Lagos, where she was deported on Aug. 3.
"I
still have the trauma in me," added the single mother, who had been
working as a bus attendant and caretaker at an international school in Abu
Dhabi.
She
was deported without access to her belongings, and is now jobless and unable to
support her son, siblings and parents.
The
Abu Dhabi government communications office, and the Nigerian embassy in Abu
Dhabi, did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the rights
groups' report, published on
Thursday.
The
Gulf monarchy, a regional trade and tourism hub and one of seven emirates which
form the United Arab Emirates (UAE), tolerates little criticism.
Human
rights groups have previously documented the imprisonment of hundreds of
activists, academics and lawyers in the UAE, often following unfair trials on
vague charges. The UAE has dismissed those accusations as false and
unsubstantiated.
The
UAE is home to nearly 10 million people, more than 80% of whom are expatriates who
send remittances home to their families, according to the United Nations.
Workers
from developing countries often live in shared residencies in Abu Dhabi with
separate wings for different nationalities, like La Gym, where Olokunde was
arrested.
African
and Asian workers have highlighted stigmatisation and racism in
the past, but the two rights groups said the June raid was a marked escalation.
"The
scale of this racially motivated deportation is completely unprecedented,"
said Michela Pugliese, a migration researcher at Euro-Med Monitor.
"The
victims and other migrants who aspire to work safely in the UAE have had this
right unjustly revoked. Its consequences will be felt for years to come."
The
investigation, based on interviews with more than 100 migrant workers, found
that Abu Dhabi's Rapid Intervention Forces (SWAT), Criminal Investigation
Department and police carried out mass arrests in at least four apartment
buildings.
The
subsequent forced deportations were illegal, Pugliese said, as many of the
workers had valid residency permits and work visas and were denied due process
or access to their personal property.
About
100 individuals remain in detention, and more African workers have been
arrested in recent weeks, Pugliese added.
The
two human rights groups said they sought clarification from the UAE interior
ministry on the reasons behind the arrests and deportations, but received no
response.
Migrant
workers told researchers that the arresting units used excessive force against
them, including stun guns, and touched women's bodies inappropriately.
Olokunde
said she was arrested in shorts and a bra, and was not allowed to dress before
being transported to the jail.
When
she and other women went on a hunger strike to demand justification for their
arrest, they were chained for seven days, including her birthday, Olokunde
said.
Two
workers who spoke to the Thomson Reuters Foundation said they slept on the
floor in large, group cells, but were not given masks to protect against
COVID-19 infection.
In
jail, the report said, detainees were denied access to health care and sanitary
pads while women had their periods.
The
rights groups said detainees were not granted access to lawyers or told why
they had been arrested - but some were indirectly accused of prostitution,
which is a crime in the UAE.
During
her single, brief interrogation, Olokunde said she was asked, "How much do
you charge for a massage?"
According
to Human Rights Watch (HRW), migrants are entitled to challenge their arrest in
their country of residence.
"The
abuses outlined demonstrate that migrants have had their rights to due process
violated, and their detention conditions could amount to ill-treatment,"
said Rothna Begum, HRW's women's rights researcher in the Middle East.
"It
is horrific that the UAE authorities appear to be conducting a secret campaign
of mass arrests of African migrants, without any clear legal basis for such
arrests or detention," she added.
Kenneth
Rubangakene, a 31-year-old Ugandan clerk who had lived in Abu Dhabi since 2017,
also said he was taken from his La Gym apartment to prison.
He
said guards scanned his fingerprints and retinas without explanation, chained
his hands and feet for three days, and imitated the sound of a couple having
sex, asking if he had ever heard that noise at La Gym.
"They
told us Africans are spoiling their country, they want to get rid of Africans
from the street, we Africans are stupid," he said.
He
was deported from Dubai International Airport on July 29, according to a
printed booking confirmation that Rubangakene shared with the Thomson Reuters
Foundation, which he said was given to him by prison guards.
"It
was so shameful at the airport. You are arriving in a prison uniform, in prison
sandals," he said.
The
Ugandan embassy in Abu Dhabi did not immediately respond to a request for
comment.
Rubangakene
said he has about 6,000 dirham ($1,634) stuck in a bank account in the UAE that
he cannot access, as his bankcard - along with teaching certifications he would
need to apply for new jobs - all remained in his room.
"I
came back with nothing. I'm starting from zero," he said. -
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