Repressive reprisals against UAE’s opponents and their relatives
The death of the son of the Emirati dissident, Ahmed Al Shaiba Al Nuaimi, highlighted UAE’s repressive measures against opponents and their relatives, including prisoners of conscience.
Al Nuaimi is a prominent human rights advocate and a defender of prisoners of conscience in the UAE. His brother Khaled Al-Shaiba was detained in Abu Dhabi prisons.
Al Nuaimi could not see his diseased son Muhammad for nine years, specifically from April 2012, when he was on a trip to Britain. The arrests of the Emirati authorities, which affected members of the Islah Association and those demanding political reforms, prevented him from returning to the homeland.
The family tried twice to travel to the UK to reunite with the father, but the UAE authorities stopped them.
In 2014, Al Nuaimi’s wife and five of her children managed to leave the country across the land border and joined the father in Britain. But Mohammed, his oldest son, was unable to go through this daunting travel process due to his deteriorating health condition.
The US State Department’s recent annual report on human rights in the UAE 2020 stated that the Emirati authorities had withdrawn the citizenships of 19 relatives of two dissidents.
The report also indicated at least 30 relatives of six opponents who are currently banned from travel and 22 relatives of three opponents who are not allowed to renew their identity documents.
Attempts by the UAE state security apparatus to pressure the relatives of detainees and opponents abroad have reached an unacceptable level. According to Human Rights Watch, among the 30 people who have been subjected to a travel ban are mothers over 90 years old and children under 18 years old.
In addition, the Emirati authorities are not satisfied with withdrawing the citizenship of relatives of opponents, but even those whose nationalities have not been withdrawn from renewing their passports and identity cards. It even came to withdraw their nationalities and leave the opponents’ relatives without documents, depriving them of their most basic rights to basic services.
According to Human Rights Watch, dozens of people can no longer work, study, access health services, or even a driver’s license because they lack official documents or are prevented from renewing them.
In addition, the state security apparatus’s war on the relatives of the opposition extended to fighting them in their daily lives. Even in cases where some people still possess official documents, they cannot obtain a public or private sector job.
If they apply for a job in the public sector, the State Security Service refuses to grant them a security permit to obtain a job. In contrast, in the private sector, the State Security Service pressures companies to expel them.
Human rights groups agree that state security harassment against relatives of detainees and opponents has amounted to social exclusion. The Emirati authorities interrogate any of their relatives and acquaintances if they communicate with them and often warn them to marry or deal with them.
