The Syrian government must immediately lift a two-month siege of opposition stronghold Daraa al-Balad and allow unfettered humanitarian access to the area where around 20,000 people are living in dire conditions with scarce supplies of food and barely any medical care, Amnesty International said today.
Thousands have fled Daraa al-Balad, a southern city of Daraa, since the siege began on 24 June. Humanitarian agencies have been unable to access the besieged area, bringing an end to the delivery of already limited humanitarian and medical aid. Those trapped in Daraa al-Balad are struggling on a daily basis to find food, water and medication, especially after the only medical point was forced to shut down after being hit by the government’s shelling. Scant supplies are trickling through smuggling routes to be sold for exorbitant prices that only a few can afford.
“Civilians are paying the price for battles they have never chosen. The Syrian government must immediately lift the siege to facilitate unfettered access for humanitarian organizations and allow the medical evacuation of the sick and injured,” said Diana Semaan, Amnesty International’s Syria researcher.
“All parties to the conflict must end unlawful attacks, grant safe passage to civilians wanting to flee the area and comply with international humanitarian law at all times.”
Between 18 till 24 August, Amnesty International spoke with four individuals in Daraa al-Balad, namely a doctor, an activist, two residents, as well as two humanitarian workers.
One humanitarian worker told the organisation that there is only enough food in Daraa al-Balad to last two weeks to a month. There is no electricity or medication available. The worker added that no humanitarian aid organization has been allowed into the besieged area– the Syrian government is only allowing aid distribution to internally displaced persons (IDPs) outside the besieged area.
Humanitarian emergency
Government forces have tightened the noose around Daraa al-Balad in a bid to root out remaining armed groups and return the whole province to government control. Sijneh road, Saraya crossing, Al-Sad road and the Palestinian and Golan camp area have all been closed, isolating the neighbourhoods from the eastern and western Daraa countryside and city centre.
Residents told Amnesty International that only women and children under 15 have been allowed out of the besieged area on foot after being subjected to security checks and told to leave their identity cards behind.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), around 38,600 people, mostly women and children, have fled Daraa al-Balad to other parts of Daraa city and the surrounding areas. The exodus happened after the government briefly opened the Saraya checkpoint for people to leave but then closed it. Most IDPs are being hosted by relatives and friends while others are living in six collective shelters such as schools and mosques.
Clashes between the Syrian government and armed groups in the area have left hundreds dead or injured since late July. Artillery shelling by government forces on 26 July hit the only medical facility in the neighbourhood. Two doctors told Amnesty International said since then, medical workers have been forced to see patients in their homes, providing them with the little care they can offer.
Civilians are paying the price for battles they have never chosen.
Patients with serious health conditions used to be referred to hospitals in government-controlled areas, like the Daraa National Hospital in Daraa al Mhatta. However, medical evacuations are now rarely approved by the Syrian government. Many sick and injured choose to remain in Daraa al-Balad out of fear of being detained or facing reprisals by government forces.
A woman residing in Daraa al-Balad told Amnesty International on 20 August about the living conditions:
“The shops are almost empty of all food. I am using what I have at home already. Pasta, rice, lentils, etc. There is a woman in the neighbourhood who has a cow, and she distributes milk to some of us, which we use to make yoghurt. There is no electricity for lengthy periods of time, even before the siege,” she said.
She described the desperate need for humanitarian and medical aid since all crossings had been blocked, and how rare and tortuous urgent medical evacuations are:
“My cousin, from my father’s side, had health complications and he needed urgent medical care, but we were not able to get him out, the government refused. He died… My neighbour also died from a stroke. He suffered from health problems, but he was too afraid to go to a hospital outside Daraa al-Balad. Even though he was old, he was afraid of being arrested.”
A media activist told Amnesty International researchers that the siege on the neighbourhood was because of its political stance against the May presidential elections.
“Once again the Syrian government is resorting to its ‘surrender or starve’ tactic which involves a combination of unlawful siege and indiscriminate bombardment of areas packed with civilians, in a bid to force armed opposition forces to surrender and evacuate. People are being starved and deprived of basic necessities in punishment for expressing views that differ to the government’s,” said Diana Semaan.
The Taliban and the international community must urgently reach an agreement to extend the 31 August deadline for completing evacuations out of Afghanistan, Amnesty International said today, to help protect thousands of Afghans who are increasingly at risk of violent reprisal attacks.
President Joe Biden has said the U.S. is on track to pull its troops out of Afghanistan in five days, despite calls to delay the withdrawal following reports of escalating Taliban threats to human rights defenders, women and girls, ethnic and religious minorities, lawmakers and journalists.
In a recent on-the-ground investigation, Amnesty International researchers revealed that nine Hazara men were tortured and killed last month by the Taliban in Ghazni province.
Amnesty International is all too aware of how terrifying the experience is for all those desperately trying to flee to safety, by air and across land borders
Agnès Callamard
“Every effort must now be made to safely evacuate Afghans who fear revenge attacks by the Taliban and have to leave the country. To fail them would be an unforgivable betrayal.
“The international community must extend the deadline for evacuations and ensure those wishing to leave Afghanistan can do so safely. This means ensuring people are able to board flights and suspending visa requirements for the most at-risk individuals. This is all the more urgent as information about abuses, targeted abductions and killings by the Taliban continues to emerge.”
Thousands of Afghans are still arriving at Hamid Karzai International Airport, desperately trying to board evacuation flights. Many must run the gauntlet of Taliban check points to reach the gates. As many as 20 people have been killed trying to enter the airport, either due to gunshot injuries as US military and Taliban shoot in the air to control the crowd, or crushed as the crowd surges to enter the airport.
The Taliban this week stated that it will not agree to an extension and does not want Afghans to leave the country, increasing fears that they will not live up to their promises to uphold and guarantee international human rights law.
Mounting persecution, killings and abuses
Mounting reports of human rights abuses have raised fears about what Taliban rule may bring.
In the first week of their takeover of the capital Kabul, the Taliban publicly assured women and the international community that women’s rights would be protected according to Sharia law, but within days they told women journalists not to report to work.
In another incident, Afghans who waved the national flag on Afghanistan Day were violently dispersed by Taliban fighters. In Jalalabad, at least three people died and others were injured – raising fears about freedom of expression under Taliban rule.
“Our own investigations into the massacre in Ghazni province is proof that the Taliban’s capacity for murder and torture has not lessened,” Agnès Callamard said.
“Afghans are fleeing at immense personal cost and risk to themselves and their families. Countries must not engage in ‘push back’ tactics, and must find a way to support all those who wish to leave Afghanistan.”
According to media reports, thousands of Afghans fleeing over land across Iran to the Turkish border face being pushed back by Turkish border guards and military police. Meanwhile, Greece has installed a 40km fence on its border with Turkey amid concern over a rise in migrants from Afghanistan.
Amnesty International recommendations
Amnesty International is calling for a robust, independent UN mechanism to be established with a mandate to document, collect and preserve evidence of ongoing crimes under international law and other serious human rights violations and abuses across Afghanistan.
UN member states must also urgently pass a resolution at the UN Security Council, calling on the Taliban to uphold international human rights law and guarantee protection from reprisals to those most at risk, including human rights defenders, journalists, and women leaders in Afghanistan.
Amnesty International is also calling for forced returns and deportations of Afghans to be halted immediately.
Background
On 19 August, Amnesty International published an investigation that revealed the murder of nine ethnic Hazara men in Ghazni province between 4 and 6 July. Six men were shot while three others were tortured and killed, including one man who was strangled with his own scarf and had his arm muscles sliced off.
In the first month since his assumption of exceptional powers, Tunisian President Kais Saied has made widespread use of arbitrary travel bans in Tunisia while bypassing the judiciary, said Amnesty International, calling on the president to respect the right of Tunisians to freedom of movement. On 23 August, the president announced an extension to the suspension of parliament and the lifting of immunity for its members “until further notice”.
The organization has documented the cases of at least 50 people, including judges, senior state officials and civil servants, businessmen, and a parliamentarian, who were barred from travelling abroad over the past month without any judicial authorization, written order, reasons or timeframe for the ban. The total number facing travel bans since 25 July is likely to be far greater.
“President Kais Saied’s indefinite suspension of parliament cannot be a justification for violating rights and freedoms in the country or undermining the judiciary. Tunisian authorities have imposed unlawful and arbitrary travel bans against people in recent weeks without justification and in the absence of any judicial order, in a blatant violation of their right to freedom of movement,” said Heba Morayef, Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International.
“Even under exceptional circumstances a person should be able to see and challenge the evidence on which a travel ban is based. If Tunisian authorities want these measures to be seen as legitimate steps in the name of fighting corruption or ensuring state security, they need to devise a narrow and accountable means of doing so that does not bar vast swathes of the public from traveling abroad.”
In a speech at Tunis airport on 16 August, President Kais Saied referred to recent criticism of the travel bans from Tunisian civil society groups and political parties, saying he had no intention of undermining the right to freedom of movement, which is “guaranteed under the constitution and international standards.” He justified the latest restrictions as part of efforts to prevent people who are suspected of corruption or of posing a security threat from fleeing the country.
However, Amnesty International’s review of 50 cases shows that those banned from travelling had no actual court case or open judicial investigation against them and that they were verbally informed by airport security officials who failed to present them with a judicial order as required by Tunisian law. This lack of a written decision or reasoning for the restriction of their freedom of movement also undermines their ability to appeal against the ban before a Tunisian court. Those banned from travel were verbally informed by airport security officials that this was a decision by the Ministry of Interior or in one case, a decision by “high officials in the presidential palace.”
Tunisian Law no. 75-40 of May 14, 1975, which regulates the issuance of travel documents clearly stipulates that judicial authorities are the sole entity authorized to issue a travel ban. The law also mandates that reasons be provided for the travel bans, that people be informed of the decision promptly, and that they have the right to challenge the decision.
On 19 August, 23 senior civil servants from auditing and inspection authority and 21 members of their families, who were going to Turkey for a group holiday, were barred from travelling. The group were all members of an association which condemned the sweeping bans in a statement published on its Facebook account. One member of the group, who asked not to be named, told Amnesty International that the border police left 30 of them, including children, waiting for five hours in a waiting room at Tunis airport, without food or water, did not present them with a written decision and did not explain the reasons for the travel bans. Border officials forced 14 other members of the group who had already boarded the plane to get off. None of the group had at any point been informed of any judicial proceedings against them – whether arrest warrants or summons to investigations.
“There was no justification for such humiliating treatment. We are all senior managers in the Tunisian public administration with no criminal record or pending judicial case, and we had informed all relevant authorities of this trip,” he said.
Even under exceptional circumstances a person should be able to see and challenge the evidence on which a travel ban is based.
Heba Morayef, Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International
Zied Ajra, an architect and company director, was barred from travelling to Turkey for a holiday on 10 August. He told Amnesty International he was forced to wait for 45 minutes as officers made phone calls before verbally informing him he was barred from travelling because of “instructions from senior officials”. When he asked why, they said: “we don’t have any information,” and did not provide him with any written decision.
Skander Rekik, a businessperson and political activist, was stopped at the airport while travelling to Turkey on 9 August and questioned by police about his business and his political activities. He was forced to wait two hours before he was told he was banned from travelling based on orders from “high officials at the presidential palace”. Rekik requested a written document to be able to challenge the decision, but the officers said they could not give him anything. He told Amnesty International that since 25 July, he had expressed views critical of the president’s exceptional measures on Facebook, including calling the President’s decision to suspend parliament a “coup.”
Imen Labidi, a judge at the first instance tribunal in Grombalia, a city 40km south of Tunis, was traveling to Turkey for a holiday on 6 August. She was forced to wait for two hours before being told she was barred from travelling due to an “information notice” from the Interior Ministry about her. She was aware of at least two other colleagues who were banned from travelling.
Anouar Benchahed, a member of the parliament from The Democratic Current party, was banned from leaving for France on 15 August. He told Amnesty International that police officers took his passport and kept him waiting for an hour before telling him a travel ban was imposed on him without further explanation.
Amnesty International urges President Saied and relevant authorities to end the use of arbitrary travel bans and respect freedom of movement as guaranteed under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, both of which Tunisia has ratified. Any restrictions on the right must be necessary and proportionate and subject to meaningful judicial review.
Background
On 25 July after a day of protests, President Saied announced plans to temporarily suspend parliament for 30 days invoking Article 80 of the constitution, which he has interpreted as granting him the right to take exceptional measures in the case of an “imminent threat against the country’s security and independence”.
Qatari authorities have failed to investigate the deaths of thousands of migrant workers over the past decade, despite evidence of links between premature deaths and unsafe working conditions, Amnesty International said today. The organization’s new report, In the Prime of their Lives, documents how Qatar routinely issues death certificates for migrant workers without conducting adequate investigations, instead attributing deaths to “natural causes” or vaguely defined cardiac failures. These certifications – described by one leading pathologist as “meaningless” – rule out the possibility of compensation for bereaved families, many of whom are already facing financial difficulties after losing their main breadwinner.
Amnesty International highlighted the risks posed to workers by Qatar’s extreme climate, especially when combined with excessive and physically strenuous working hours. Qatar recently introduced some new protections for workers, but major risks remain and authorities have done little to investigate the scale of heat-related deaths. As well as consulting leading medical experts and reviewing government data relating to thousands of deaths, Amnesty analysed 18 death certificates and interviewed the families of six men, all of whom were between 30 and 40 when they died.
When relatively young and healthy men die suddenly after working long hours in extreme heat, it raises serious questions about the safety of working conditions in Qatar.
Steve Cockburn
“When relatively young and healthy men die suddenly after working long hours in extreme heat, it raises serious questions about the safety of working conditions in Qatar. In failing to investigate the underlying causes of migrant workers’ deaths, the Qatari authorities are ignoring warning signs which could, if addressed, save lives. This is a violation of the right to life. They are also denying bereaved families their right to remedy, and leaving them with painful unanswered questions,” said Steve Cockburn, Amnesty International’s Head of Economic and Social Justice.
“We are urging the Qatari authorities to fully investigate all deaths of migrant workers. If workers have been exposed to dangerous conditions such as extreme heat, and no other cause of death can be established, Qatar must provide families with adequate compensation, and take immediate action to strengthen protections for other workers. The failure to investigate, remedy and prevent the deaths of migrant workers is a breach of Qatar’s obligation to uphold and protect the right to life.”
Epidemiological experts said that in a well-resourced health system, it should be possible to identify the exact cause of death in all but 1% of cases, but Amnesty’s review of data from major labour-sending countries found that the rate of unexplained migrant worker deaths in Qatar may be close to 70%.
Amnesty International reviewed 18 death certificates for migrant workers issued by Qatar between 2017 and 2021. Fifteen provided no information about underlying causes, instead using terms such as “acute heart failure natural causes”, “heart failure unspecified” and “acute respiratory failure due to natural causes”.
These are phrases that should not be included on a death certificate without a further qualification explaining the underlying cause
Dr David Bailey
Similar phrases were used in reports for more than half of the 35 deaths which have been recorded as “non-work related” on World Cup facilities since 2015 – suggesting meaningful investigations were unlikely to have been carried out in these cases.
Dr David Bailey, a leading pathologist and member of the WHO Working Group on death certification, told Amnesty International:
“These are phrases that should not be included on a death certificate without a further qualification explaining the underlying cause. Essentially, everyone dies of respiratory or cardiac failure in the end and the phrases are meaningless without an explanation of the reason why.”
Amnesty’s analysis of deaths data from multiple sources indicates that migrant worker deaths are going unexplained on a large scale. Official Qatari statistics show that over 15,021 non-Qataris – of all ages and occupations – died between 2010 and 2019, but data on cause of death is unreliable, due to the lack of investigations which Amnesty documented.
The fact that a high number of deaths are categorized as ‘cardiovascular diseases’ in Qatar’s statistics may be obscuring a high number of deaths that are, in reality, unexplained. This is also indicated by deaths data from South Asian countries, where a large majority of migrant workers come from.
For example, Bangladeshi government records show that 71% of deaths of Bangladeshi nationals in Qatar between November 2016 and October 2020 were attributed by Qatari authorities to “natural causes.”
An investigation by the Guardian also found that 69% of deaths among Indian, Nepali and Bangladeshi workers, between 2010 and 2020, were attributed to natural causes.
Amnesty investigated the deaths of six migrant workers in detail – four construction workers, one security guard and one truck driver. None of the men had any known underlying health conditions, and all had passed mandatory medical tests before traveling to Qatar. None of their families have received compensation.
Manjur Kha Pathan, 40, worked 12 to 13 hours a day as a truck driver. He had complained that the air conditioning in his cabin was faulty. Manjur collapsed at his accommodation on 9 February 2021, and died before the ambulance arrived.
Sujan Miah, 32, worked as a pipe fitter on a project in the desert. His workmates found him dead in his bed on the morning of 24 September 2020. On the four days leading up to Sujan Miah’s death, temperatures had exceeded 40°C.
Tul Bahadur Gharti, 34, worked in construction. He died in his sleep on 28 May 2020, after working around ten hours in temperatures that had reached 39°C.
Suman Miah, 34, worked in construction. He died on 29 April 2020, after completing a long shift in temperatures that reached 38°C.
Yam Bahadur Rana, 34, worked as an airport security guard, a job which involved long hours sitting outside in the sun. He died at work on 22 February 2020.
Mohammad Kaochar Khan, 34, worked as a plasterer. He was found dead in his bed on 15 November 2017.
Amnesty International interviewed the men’s families in Nepal and Bangladesh. Family members emphasized their shock at the deaths, stressing that they had believed their relatives to be in in good health. Several described the extreme heat and difficult conditions their relatives had regularly been exposed to at work.
I could not believe the news at first. I had talked to him a few hours earlier.
Sumi Akter, wife of Suman Miah
Yam Bahadur Rana’s wife Bhumisara said:
“[My husband] had to sit in the sun for a long time. I feel like he had a heart attack due to dryness and heat because I never knew he was sick.”
Tul Bahadur Gharti’s wife Bipana said:
“I had never heard him mention a single illness… it was hard to believe when I heard the news of his sudden death… My husband was set on fire. I feel like I’m burning in oil.”
A state’s duty to protect the right to life, as well as its obligations to ensure healthy working and environmental conditions, includes adopting laws or other measures to protect life from reasonably foreseeable threats. One of the most well-documented and foreseeable risks to workers’ life and health in Qatar is exposure to extreme heat and humidity, which has been the subject of numerous reports.
In 2019 the Qatari government commissioned a study into the issue by the Greece-base FAME Laboratory. It found that workers provided with only the minimal protections required by Qatari law at that time were at significantly higher risk of heat stroke than a group on a World Cup project, where workers generally have higher standards of protection.
A 2019 study in the journal Cardiology found a correlation between heat and deaths of Nepali workers in Qatar, concluding that “as many as 200 of the 571 cardiovascular deaths [of Nepali migrant workers] during 2009-2017 could have been prevented” with effective heat protection measures.
Until recently, the main protection against occupational heat stress in Qatar was a ban on outdoor working at certain hours, between 15 June and 31 August. There were no restrictions for the rest of the year. In May 2021, Qatar extended the summer working hours ban from 1 June to 15 September, and introduced other requirements including a prohibition on outdoor work when an index measuring heat and humidity reaches 32 degrees. The new legislation also gives workers the right to stop working and submit a complaint to the Ministry of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs if they are concerned about heat stress.
Professor David Wegman, an expert on health and safety in the construction industry, told Amnesty that though the new law is an improvement, it “falls far short of what is necessary for the protection of labourers who are subject to heat stress exposures of all types”.
While the new regulations do provide some greater protections, critically they do not include mandatory rest periods proportionate to the climate conditions and nature of work undertaken. Instead, they grant workers the right to ‘self-pace’ in hot weather.
Given the extremely unequal power relations between workers and employers in Qatar, experts consulted by Amnesty highlighted that relying on ‘self-pacing’ is unlikely to be feasible for many workers, and that workers’ safety is “critically dependant” on mandatory breaks.
“All our dreams vanished”
None of the families Amnesty interviewed were offered any form of post-mortem examination to identify the underlying cause of death of their loved ones. This meant it could not be determined whether working conditions had contributed, thereby precluding the possibility of compensation from either employers or Qatari authorities.
All our dreams vanished when my brother passed away. He hoped to improve all of our living standards but most of his wages were used to repay the cost of migration.
Didarul Islam, brother of Mohammad Kaochar Khan
Amnesty met Suman Miah’s family, including his two young children, at their home in Bangladesh. They heard about Suman’s death from his co-workers, and were not contacted by Qatari authorities or offered an autopsy.
“I could not believe the news at first. I had talked to him a few hours earlier”, Suman’s wife, Sumi Akter, said.
The Bangladeshi Welfare Board gave Suman’s family 300,000 Bangladeshi taka (approximately US$3,500), but this was used to pay off debts Suman had incurred from recruitment fees paid during his migration to Qatar.
Mohammad Kaochar Khan had also paid recruitment fees to get his job in Qatar. His family had partly funded the 350,000 Bangladeshi taka (approximately US$4,130) fee by selling land and taking out loans. They were also provided with financial assistance by the Bangladeshi government, which they used to pay off Mohammad’s recruitment debt.
Mohammad’s brother Didarul Islam told Amnesty:
“All our dreams vanished when my brother passed away. He hoped to improve all of our living standards but we were never able to save any money, because most of his wages were used to repay the cost of migration.”
The struggles these families are now facing illustrate the cycle of exploitation which continues to ensnare so many migrant workers in Qatar. Since being awarded the 2022 FIFA World Cup in 2010, Qatar has made several significant positive reforms to its labour laws. But weak implementation and enforcement mean that progress on the ground has been slow, and exploitation remains commonplace. Many migrant workers remain at the mercy of unscrupulous employers, who are allowed to commit abuses with impunity.
Qatar is one of the richest countries in the world – not only can it afford to do far better, it has an obligation to do so.
Steve Cockburn
Amnesty International is calling on Qatar to strengthen its laws to protect workers from extreme heat, by introducing mandatory rest breaks in line with the risks they face, and to improve the investigation, certification and compensation of migrant workers’ deaths.
“Qatar must establish a specialist team to properly investigate the death of every worker, and ensure that compensation is paid in any case where working conditions such as exposure to extreme heat cannot be ruled out as a contributing factor,” said Steve Cockburn.
“Qatar is one of the richest countries in the world – not only can it afford to do far better, it has an obligation to do so.”
Background
Experts outlined a range of techniques that are used to diagnose the cause of deaths in cases where exposure to extreme heat may be a factor. These include investigations into workplace conditions, workers’ medical history, and various medical examinations to rule out alternative causes of death.
Official statistics show that 15,021 non-Qataris have died in the country between 2010 and 2019. This does not equate to the number of migrant workers who have died because of working conditions, as it includes people of all ages, occupations and causes.
The government data also does not indicate how many workers have died in preparation for the World Cup. Qatar’s Supreme Committee on Delivery and Legacy says that 35 workers on World Cup projects they oversee have died since 2015, but there is no estimate of how many workers have died on other infrastructure projects linked to the delivery of the tournament.
In einem neuen Bericht kritisiert Amnesty International das Versäumnis katarischer Behörden, den Tod tausender Arbeitsmigrant_innen in den vergangenen zehn Jahren nicht untersucht zu haben, obwohl es Hinweise gibt für einen Zusammenhang zwischen ihrem vorzeitigen Tod und den gefährlichen Arbeitsbedingungen.
