News - Middle East - UAE: Amnesty International revealed that UAE has used Corona pandemic to escalate repression and systematically violate human rights.

 The organization highlighted that governments in the Middle East and North Africa region, including  UAE, continue to suppress peaceful critics and persist in committing human rights violations.

Many of them also faced  Covid-19 virus epidemic by declaring states of emergency, or in some cases, passing legislation devoted to this purpose that created additional restrictions on freedom of expression or assembly.

It stated that  global pandemic exposed the horrific legacy of contentious and deliberate destructive policies that perpetuated inequality, unfair discrimination and oppression, and paved way for  havoc caused by Covid-19 virus epidemic in world and within  MENA region.

Amnesty International Report 2020/2021: The State of Human Rights in the World covered 149 countries, providing  comprehensive analysis of global human rights trends in 2020.

The report also sheds light on how leaders in  MENA region and the rest of  world have undermined the response to  global pandemic, exploiting  crisis ruthlessly to continue their attacks on human rights.

It stated that epidemic has exacerbated the already dire situation for foreign workers in various parts of Middle East and North Africa who are enrolled in the abusive sponsorship system in UAE and the rest of  Gulf countries.

While some Gulf states have taken measures to eliminate fines for staying after the visa expires, many foreign workers have also faced arbitrary dismissal from their jobs, and their wages have not been paid for months.

Heba Morayef, Director of Regional Office said, “In all parts of Middle East and North Africa, 2020 was disastrous year for prisoners, refugees, migrants and already marginalized minorities, and because of  Covid-19 virus, they found that their situation is more dangerous than ever. She emphasized that governments should give priority to providing adequate medical care in prisons, to alleviate overcrowding, and to release all those arbitrarily detained.