Amnesty International accuses UAE of mass expulsion of Africans 

In a statement released on Tuesday, the organisation urged the authorities to immediately halt all racially motivated detentions and deportations.

Amnesty in the statement, accused the UAE’s Criminal Investigation Department of embarking on an organised raid motivated by colourism on June 24-25, breaking doors open and arresting several Africans whom they detained in al-Wathba prison under inhumane and degrading conditions and subsequently deported, without due process.

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“In detaining and arbitrarily deporting hundreds of African nationals en masse, based on racial targeting and with no legal due process, the UAE violated multiple provisions of international law,” Amnesty International said.

Some of these international laws breached are the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, International Human Rights law and the customary rule of international law, applying to all states, that forbid the forcible return of persons to a country where they are in danger of serious human rights violations.

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The UAE’s Ministry of Interior had issued a statement on September 3, stating that the arrests involving 376 women and men were carried out as part of legal procedures to address crimes related to human trafficking.

“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,” the ministry said.

However, 18 victims of the raid on African Migrants, including five Nigerians, who spoke with Amnesty International, denied any involvement in crime, saying that they had their documents with valid legal status in the UAE but were arrested and handcuffed between 2 am and 4 am from their homes without being told of their offence.