A plane carrying 150-Somalis deported from Saudi Arabia landed in Mogadishu on Tuesday evening, Immigration officers…
A plane carrying 150-Somalis deported from Saudi Arabia landed in Mogadishu on Tuesday evening, Immigration officers in the Somali capital confirmed.
Most of the deportees, Women and children, were detained by the Saudi Police following a crackdown on foreigners living in the Kingdom.
Deportees returned to Mogadishu reported overcrowding, poor nutrition and sanitation, and abuse by Saudi guards.
‘’Some of them [deportees] have lived there for decades and legally… they were treated harshly and forced to board the plane,’’ said Abdi Omar, an immigration officer.
Since January 2014, more than 12,000 Somalis have also been deported. Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported that Somalis were prevented from filing for refugee status, even though they were deported to war-torn Somalia. Earlier this year, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees reported that Somali refugees still needed international protection and called on all host countries to stop forcibly repatriating Somalis.
Human Rights Watch criticized the conditions of detainees awaiting deportation in Saudi. HRW revealed to the international community that Somali migrants were held under “appalling conditions” before they were deported.
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