Saudi Arabia – Saudi authorities have arrested (750) Egyptian expats two weeks ago, pending deportation.
Workers were arrested as a result of disagreements between them and their Saudi sponsors and since then activist in Egypt sent a call for help.
Saudi Arabia confirms that the workers are arrested because they violated labour regulations in Saudi Arabia, and that they have to pay the fine, but the vice president of the Al Haq International human rights organization lawyer Amr Abdel-Salam, said that the imprisonment of workers continue despite their inability to pay the fine, which forced some of them to start on a hunger strike for nearly four days, causing a deterioration of their health and put their lives at risk. He pointed that the Shimeisy prison administration in Jeddah abstained from providing health care to save their lives, and said that the Egyptian consulate also abandoned them.
The Organization formed a legal committee to provide all kinds of support for the detainees, and to communicate with the Saudi authorities to end the crisis and deport them to Egypt.
A statement issued by the Egyptian Consul in Jeddah Adel Al Alfi said that the consulate is following the case and that they granted travel documents for those who were given permission to be deported.
He added that the General Consulate in Jeddah and the Egyptian embassy in Riyadh have conducted contacts with the Saudi authorities to find a solution to this issue.
According to Saudi law, all detainees of all nationalities should pay a fine of $ 10 thousand SAR, in case of violating the labour law, or escaped from the sponsor. Under the new law, which came into force nearly two years ago, worker should be kept in detention center until they pay the fine, pending deportation.
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