Saudi human rights activists inspected the Deportation jail here Saturday and found, among several anomalies, a disabled detainee needing urgent medical care. Members of the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) asked the jail authorities to immediately arrange medical treatment for the detainee and did not leave until the man was taken away in an ambulance. Led by Hussein Al-Shareef, NSHR supervisor in the Makkah region, the team also found in detention children of Saudi women married to non-Saudis and foreign men married to Saudi women. This was objectionable and the team advised the Prisons Authority to consider Article 10 of the Kingdom's Basic Law of Governance which aims to preserve family security. Other shortcomings uncovered included needlessly prolonged detention due to poor follow-up of government and embassy documentation procedures for deportation, and also unarranged flight bookings. Moreover, the detainees are not educated on the deportation procedures or their rights. Nowhere in the jail premises were there guides or booklets to inform prisoners of their rights. Deportee wards are isolated from the main office building inside the premises. There is no area for embassy representatives and lawyers to process paperwork, the NSHR team noted. The number of deportees has hugely increased from 836 in 2007 to 2030 in 2008, said Al-Shareef. Referring to the man who was sent by ambulance to hospital, Al-Shareef said the Jeddah Health Department had refused to treat the detainee. The man has the right to good health and NSHR will follow up his case with King Fahd Hospital, he said. Al-Shareef said the response of the Prisons Authority to earlier requests by NSHR to improve prison conditions, like overcrowding and hygiene, was reassuring. There is ongoing improvement and new projects are being implemented to improve prison conditions, he said. But the Passports Department office inside the deportation jail needs to be beefed up, he thought. The office coordinates with embassies on deportation procedures and provides a one-way travel ticket for those who cannot afford it. The team was accompanied by the chief of the Passports Department at the Jeddah Prisons Authority, Col. Muhammad Al
