{"id":2141,"date":"2019-01-22T05:15:23","date_gmt":"2019-01-22T05:15:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/arakanwatch.org\/?p=2141"},"modified":"2019-01-23T05:18:52","modified_gmt":"2019-01-23T05:18:52","slug":"rohingya-refugees-urge-un-to-help-relatives-detained-in-saudi-arabia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arakanwatch.org\/en\/rohingya-refugees-urge-un-to-help-relatives-detained-in-saudi-arabia\/","title":{"rendered":"Rohingya refugees urge UN to help relatives detained in Saudi Arabia"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Women in Bangladesh camp try to draw Special Rapporteur Yanghee Lee’s attention to those trapped in legal limbo in the kingdom<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Rohingya refugees inside a Bangladeshi refugee camp held a silent protest on Tuesday, urging visiting United Nations officials to help members of their community detained indefinitely in Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n

Footage sent to Middle East Eye by detainees\u00a0showed Rohingya women holding a banner asking the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) and Special Rapporteur on Myanmar Yanghee Lee to help their “brothers, fathers, sons and husbands” detained in Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n

Lee can be seen walking past the women\u00a0as she visited Rohingya in southern Bangladesh’s Kutupalong camp who have been forcibly displaced from their homes in neighbouring Myanmar.<\/p>\n

The special rapporteur had not responded to request for comment by the time of publication.<\/p>\n

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Heartbreaking. Video showing Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh urging @<\/span>YangheeLeeSKKU<\/span><\/a> to intervene to help their relatives who’ve been detained indefinitely in Saudi Arabia.<\/div>\n
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\nYanghee Lee has not made a single statement on Rohingya in Saudi despite repeated requests.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0Relatives of Rohingya detainees held in Saudi Arabia have held regular protests in the camp demanding their loved ones’ release, which has not gone unnoticed by those stuck in legal limbo in the kingdom.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Habib, a Rohingya detainee in Shumaisi detention centre, told Middle East Eye he was “elated to see” refugees speaking up for them.<\/p>\n

“It makes me happy seeing my sisters and brothers speaking up for all of us inside Shumaisi,” said Habib, who like all those spoken to in detention has had his name changed for security reasons.<\/p>\n

“I hope Yanghee Lee hears our sisters’ pleas and does something to free us.”<\/p>\n

John Quinley, a human rights specialist who works for advocacy group Fortify Rights, called on Saudi Arabia to release the Rohingya\u00a0held\u00a0in Shumaisi.<\/p>\n

“Rohingya diaspora have been at the forefront of spotlighting the human rights violations happening in places like Saudi Arabia,” Quinley told MEE.<\/p>\n

“Saudi Arabia should immediately release all Rohingya refugees arbitrarily and indefinitely detained in the country.<\/p>\n

“The Saudi government should urgently end the harmful practice of detaining children, which is against the UN convention on the rights of the child.”<\/p>\n

Saudi deportations to Bangladesh<\/h3>\n

The silent protest comes as activists told MEE that at least 250 Rohingya detainees were being prepared for deportation to Bangladesh on Sunday, despite coming to the kingdom from Myanmar.<\/p>\n

Zahid, another detainee inside the Shumaisi detention centre, said that the Saudis were deporting more than 200 refugees in groups of ten.<\/p>\n

“They prepared the Rohingya detainees for Bangladesh and took them to the Hajj terminal in Jeddah for deportation,” he said.<\/p>\n

“When they took them, the Saudis took away their phones. We don’t know what has happened to them, or if they are safe.”<\/p>\n

Deportations to Bangladesh, where as many as 700,000 Rohingya have fled to in the face of massacres that have been described by some rights groups as a genocide, have prompted some detainees to go on hunger strike to stop the Saudis from expelling them.<\/p>\n

Photos and videos smuggled out of Shumaisi in recent days have shown detainees refusing to take their daily food rations, leaving them on the floor for the Saudi immigration\u00a0officers to collect.<\/p>\n