At least 400 mostly Indian detainees at Shumaisy Deportation Center in Riyadh went on hunger strike Sunday in protest at the death of fellow inmate Sheikh Muhammed Saqib. The death Sunday of 50-year-old Saqib, a former mosque muezzin in Makkah, was confirmed by V.K. Sharma, Attache at the Indian Embassy's Community Welfare Section of the Indian Embassy in Riyadh, and inmates at the facility. Saqib was reportedly arrested after his Iqama residency permit expired. He had been held at the Deportation Center for eight months prior to his death. Inmate Muhammed Ashraf, speaking from the deportation center by telephone, told Saudi Gazette that during his internment Saqib suffered continual weight loss leaving him resembling a “skeleton.” He was even placed on a flight two weeks ago but was removed before take-off and returned to the center, Ashraf said. “His life could have been saved had he stayed on the flight, and he would have been home with his family in Uttar Pradesh in India,” said Ashraf, who himself has been awaiting deportation for four months. Inmates, shocked by the death of the father of three, have since refrained from consuming food, breaking fasts with only water, in an attempt to attract the attention of higher authorities to the case. R. Muraleedharan, president of the Federation of Kerala Association in Saudi Arabia (Fokasa), an umbrella organization of 22 groups in the Kingdom, has sought intervention from the Indian government by sending a petition to Vayalar Ravi, State Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs. “It would appear that the refusal to take meals, effectively a hunger strike, is an attempt to persuade the Saudi authorities to lend a sympathetic ear and consider their pleas for swift deportation,” Muraleedharan said. According to Murleedharan, cell numbers 8 and 9 at the Shumaisy Deportation Center contain around 500 Indian nationals, and inmates claim that virtually no deportations from these cells have been carried out in the last two weeks. Murleedharan said sources at the Indian Embassy told him that the Welfare Division was unable to coordinate with Saudi authorities at the Deportation Center to facilitate detainees' repatriation. An official at the embassy, however, said that emergency certificates were immediately issued upon submission of proof of Indian nationality. “The situation has reached a point where the Indian Embassy is incapable of resolving the issue, and so Fokasa has called on the Indian government to intervene,” Murleedharan said. “The magnitude of the issue” prompted Fokasa to appeal for “high-level intervention from the two governments,” with Murleedharan writing a petition to the Indian government with copies also submitted to the prime minister, the president and other members of parliament. The petition says it hopes to bring attention to “the suffering of hundreds of Indian nationals (males and females) in three deportation centers located in Riyadh, Dammam and Jeddah, in Saudi Arabia.” Murleedharan, citing inmates' testimonies, said the conditions in which they were being kept were lamentable: “The overcrowding means detainees have to sleep in the toilets,” he said. “Several detainees have been suffering from fever, chicken pox and influenza, and extreme weather conditions have exacerbated the situation.” “The condition of one particular detainee named Siaram has been getting worse and worse, and has now been aggravated by his refusal to eat.” According to Murleedharan, Siaram is in handcuffs and remains confined to the cell bathroom due to what he calls his “disturbed mental condition.” Fellow inmate Ashraf is also extremely concerned for Siaram's health: “Siaram's hands and legs have swollen up and he needs urgent medical attention. We are really worried about what's going to become of him,” Ashraf said. Most inmates at the Shumaisy Deportation Center are reportedly either runaway workers or residents whose Iqamas (residency permits) have expired. Others have been caught in administrative difficulties after having being registered as “absconding” by their sponsors.
