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Thousands of Afghan nationals who fled their country flee Taliban arbitrarily detained in united arab emirates (United Arab Emirates), according to a damning report human rights watch (Human Rights Watch).
A months-long investigation by human rights groups has found that between 2,400 and 2,700 Afghans have been trapped in poor-quality and cramped living conditions for more than 15 months in “UAE Humanitarian Cities”.
A former Afghan Supreme Court judge died in a refugee camp, while another attempted suicide, Human Rights Watch found. Difficult living conditions included alleged denial of legal aid and denial of permission to leave the house.
“The camp is like a prison,” says one Afghanistan country in camp, roughly in between Abu Dhabi and dubaitold international human rights watchdogs.
Grim picture of August 2021, when Taliban militants launch onslaught kabul and took over Afghanistan, showing that painful length people fear hardliners trying to leave the country.
HRW researcher Joey Shea, who spoke to more than a dozen people inside the camp, said the families trapped in the UAE were among the civilians “desperately” trying to escape the Taliban.
‘Humanitarian cities’ are said to be temporary solutions for emergency transit afghans flee their home country.
After weeks of waiting for aid, many Afghans are finally able to board planes private charter They were dispatched from Mazar-e-Sharif by the UAE government in September and October last year, hoping to rid themselves of a brutal regime.
Ms Shea, who has interviewed 16 detainees over several months and has been informed of more than 2,000 people in the camp, said the situation was worrying because many families were locked in 4x4m rooms and the beds were now infested with bugs.
While families were allocated a room roughly smaller than the average garage to accommodate their children, multiple single men were forced to live in single rooms in a hall, the study found.
Ms Shea explained that refugees are stranded in the UAE and the crisis has only caused them more misery as they depend on the limited funds they had when they left Afghanistan.
Those who spoke to HRW said they were not allowed to leave the complex except for “essential hospital visits” under the close supervision of security personnel.
This effectively rules out regular health checks and medical assistance for refugees, even as they are forced to deal with growing isolation and a pervasive mental health crisis.
Refugees have expressed concern about their deteriorating living conditions since they first landed there.
Detainees said morale was high at first.
For the first few weeks, “we were fine with the room, but now that we’ve been here for 14 months, life is very difficult,” one woman told HRW, adding that they were using the single living area as a dining room, living room and a place to sleep.
There is a toilet in the room, but no cleaning facilities.
One of the residents told HRW that the crib provided to them was infested with bedbugs and the accommodation was never cleaned.
Every age group – parents, young people and children been denied school for almost two years now – Suffering from depression all the time.
“They all suffered from depression, and it got worse the longer they were in the camp,” said one interviewee.
Ms Shea told reporters the situation had deteriorated so much that one detainee in the single men’s dormitory decided to return to Afghanistan independent Through the phone. The researchers, who reported on Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates for HRW, did not specify details of those who left the camp in order to remain anonymous.
Ms Shea said the strong sentiment among some detainees was to return to Afghanistan.
“My roommate wanted to go back to Afghanistan, and he came back. He was desperate about being transferred to another country, so he decided to go back,” one of the detainees told Ms Shea.
Before management escape from kabul, the evacuees stayed in hiding for days to weeks. Their doomed hopes appear to take a turn when relatives, colleagues or employers with ties to U.S. citizens tell them they want a plane ticket out of Afghanistan.
Human Rights Watch found that some of the evacuees interviewed and now living in Abu Dhabi, Previously worked at some point with a U.S. government-affiliated entity or program in Afghanistan.
“It’s most worrying to see tens of thousands of people fleeing Taliban violence stranded when they actually hoped for a better life,” Ms Shea said.
She noted that hundreds of children detained in humanitarian cities have not been given any proper educational opportunities since their arrival.
“A parent of three teenagers said his kids weren’t in school because they weren’t getting a meaningful education,” she told independent.
deadlock over The future of Afghan evacuees Has been lingering in the form of no pending asylum claims and no visible steps to move to another country.
Ms Shea said this was enforced under tough scrutiny from guards monitoring the apartment complex.
“The biggest problem is that we don’t know our future, we don’t know our destination,” one detainee commented on the future of the thousands of people being held in the complex.
The UAE dismissed the findings of the Human Rights Watch report, saying some 87 percent of the more than 17,000 evacuees brought to the UAE’s humanitarian cities on “humanitarian grounds” had been resettled.
“The Emirates Humanitarian City in Abu Dhabi has hosted more than 17,000 evacuees since September 2021 and has successfully housed around 87 per cent. The UAE continues to work with the US embassy to process travelers and liaise with US counterparts , trying to accommodate the remaining evacuees in a timely manner as originally agreed,” an Emirati official told independent.
The evacuees – especially women, girls and families – have been provided with “a comprehensive range of high-quality housing, sanitation, health, clinical, counseling, education and food services to ensure their welfare”, the official added.
“The UAE continues to do everything in its power to make this extraordinary humanitarian resettlement a complete success. We understand the frustration and the fact that this is taking longer than expected to complete.”
The official said the UAE has been in touch with the United States and other international allies to “ensure that Afghan evacuees can live in safety, security and dignity”.
This article was modified on the date of publication. It had previously erroneously referred to “International Humanitarian City” in two places, but the camp referred to in the HRW report was “Emirate Humanitarian City”.
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