NHRC records 646 violations of rights to family reunion

The National Human Rights Committee (NHRC) has documented 646 violations of the rights to family reunion committed by the blockading countries against Qatar residents since June 5 last year until May 23 this year.

There were 346 violations by Saudi Arabia, 82 by the UAE and 218 by Bahrain, according to the Fifth General Report - Continuation of human rights violations - A year of the blockade imposed on Qatar. The measures taken by the three countries since June 5 last year have made it difficult for normal family union among the joint GCC families as their citizens who have relations or married to Qataris were not allowed to join them or receive them and similarly Qataris were denied access by these countries to visit or join their families there.Though these countries have claimed to have formed some committees to handle and resolve the humanitarian negative consequences of the blockade, the issue has remained unresolved and unchanged according to a number of international organisations and the statements of the victims themselves."The majority of the measures were broad and non-targeted, making no distinction between the Government of Qatar and its population, and the directives issued to address the humanitarian needs of families with joint nationalities, appear not sufficiently effective to address all cases,” pointed out Prince Zeid Ra’ad Zeid al-Hussein, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on June 14, 2017.Similarly, on June 9, 2017, Amnesty International condemned the violations resulting from the blockade imposed on Qatar, and stated that the organisation’s researchers had interviewed dozens of people whose human rights have been affected by a series of sweeping measures imposed in an arbitrary manner by the three Gulf countries in their dispute with Qatar. On June 12 last year, Amnesty International confirmed that the measures taken by the Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain were vague, inadequate, lacked mechanisms and did not address the human rights situation.The cases documented by NHRC in this regard include:Ms (T A), a Qatari: Divorced from a citizen of Saudi nationality and have children of Saudi nationality in her custody. She is a resident of Qatar, and since the beginning of the blockade and the closure of the land border by Saudi authorities, the father's visits have been cut off to his sons living with their mother. This is in addition to the psychological effects of depriving the children from their father.Ms (R K), a Qatari: Married to a citizen of the UAE nationality (R M) and have an Emirati daughter born in Qatar. She resides permanently in Qatar while her husband works in the UAE. Since the beginning of the blockade, the father has been prevented from visiting his family. She added that she has not been able to send her daughter to see her father in the UAE because she cannot guarantee her return to Qatar.Ms (D S), a Qatari: Married to a Bahraini citizen (S A) and has three children. Since the start of the blockade on Qatar, the father’s visits to his sons have ceased as well as all ways of communicating with him. She added that she has found it difficult to renew her children’s travel documents after the closure of the Bahraini embassy in Qatar. Furthermore, she has been banned from entering Bahrain by the Bahraini authorities that hinders her children from continuing their education as well as exposed them to psychological effects due to depriving them of their father.