By Jonathan Landay
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Human Rights Watch on Wednesday accused Emirati authorities of arbitrarily detaining for more than 15 months as many as 2,700 Afghan evacuees who have no legal pathways to refugee status or resettlement elsewhere.
Many of those housed in Emirates Humanitarian City are suffering from depression and other psychological ailments, have no access to legal counsel, and have inadequate educational services for their children, a Human Rights Watch report said.
“Living conditions have also deteriorated significantly, with detainees describing overcrowding, decay of infrastructure, and insect infestations,” the report said of the facility in Abu Dhabi.
The report said Human Rights Watch received no responses to requests for comment from the UAE ministries of interior and foreign affairs.
The U.S. State Department office that handles the relocation of Afghans told the group in a letter that the U.S. commitment to resettling eligible Afghans – including those in Emirates Humanitarian City – is an “enduring one”, the report said.
Emirati officials previously have said the UAE offered to temporarily host thousands of Afghan refugees evacuated after the Taliban takeover of Kabul in August 2021.
The UAE, they have said, was committed to ensuring Afghan evacuees lived in safety, security and dignity, and Abu Dhabi was working with the U.S. embassy to resettle them.
Private evacuation groups and the Emirati military flew thousands of Afghans into the UAE during the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan that ended 20 years of war. Several private groups continued chartered evacuation flights after the U.S. departure.
The evacuees were housed in Emirates Humanitarian City and Tasameem Workers City – apartment complexes converted into refugee housing – and many eventually were cleared for resettlement in the United States, Canada and other countries.
Between 2,500 and 2,700 Afghans, however, did not qualify for resettlement elsewhere and as of January remained in what the report called “arbitrary detention”.
“Emirati authorities have kept thousands of Afghan asylum seekers locked up for over 15 months in cramped, miserable conditions with no hope of progress on their cases,” said Joey Shea, Human Rights Watch’s UAE researcher.
Sixteen Afghans interviewed late last year by the group said they could not freely leave the site, with security guards or minders watching them closely on hospital visits and during the only shopping mall visit they have been permitted.
The report said Emirati authorities are not abiding by international law and U.N. guidelines for dealing with asylum seekers and migrants, making their detention “arbitrary”.
The UAE is not a party to the U.N. Refugee Convention.
Human Rights Watch called on the UAE to immediately release the Afghans, allow them access to “fair and individualized” processing to determine their refugee status and protection requirements, and permit them to live where they want until their cases are resolved.
The organization urged the State Department to use its leverage to win the release of the Afghans and expedite any applications for asylum or humanitarian parole.
The United States has resettled more than 88,000 Afghans evacuated during and after the U.S. troop withdrawal. Thousands who worked for the U.S. government, however, remain in Afghanistan awaiting the processing of their special immigration visa applications.
(Reporting by Jonathan Landay; Editing by Sonali Paul)
