UAE paves way for forced deportation of thousands of Africans

ABU DHABI, Oct. 27 (YPA) – In a new racist measure, the UAE authorities have taken measures to pave the way for the forced deportation of tens of thousands of Africans after preventing them from renewing work permits.

Ugandan government sources revealed that more than 75,000 Ugandans have become illegally residing in the UAE because they were prevented from renewing their initial work permits.

The sources indicated that most of them traveled on visitor visas for a period of one month, and when they got there, they got jobs, the UAE authorities refused to renew their permits.

According to the sources, there are about 100,000 Ugandans living in the UAE and only 25,000 of them went there legally through licensed recruitment agencies, and this means that 75,000 of them are there illegally, while 1,500 are in various detention centers.

Last month, two international human rights organizations presented to the United Nations Human Rights Council, at its fifty-first session in Geneva, the UAE’s racial discrimination against black immigrants.

The two organizations said the UAE is proud to send an astronaut to space and promote itself while discriminating against black immigrants and violating their rights.

In his speech, the Euro-Mediterranean Programs and Communications Officer, Mohammed Shehadeh, said that the UAE police carried out a comprehensive and arbitrary campaign against African migrants last year, detaining and deporting at least 375 of them.

“These immigrants were living and working in the country legally, but their only crime was the color of their skin,” he added.

In cooperation with the International Organization for Impact on Human Rights Policies, The Euro-Med Monitor revealed grave violations, including imprisonment, torture, and the forced deportation of hundreds of African migrant workers in the UAE during the month of June 2021.

The two organizations said in a report entitled, “They told us they hate black Africans,” based on more than 100 testimonies of migrant workers from Cameroon, Nigeria and Uganda, that on June 24 and 25, 2021, the Emirati authorities carried out a massive campaign of incursions and arrests against hundreds of African workers in the country, illegally detaining and torturing them before their collective deportation, apparently based on racist motives.

YPA