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Amnesty: MENA Governments Use COVID-19 as Excuse to Limit Human Rights
Kenyan women employed in Lebanon as domestic workers gather next to the Kenyan Consulate in Beirut on Aug. 20, 2020, as they demand to be repatriated back to their country. Foreign workers enter Lebanon under the controversial "kefala" system, which has been denounced by rights groups as enabling a wide range of abuses. (Anwar Amro/AFP via Getty Images)

Amnesty: MENA Governments Use COVID-19 as Excuse to Limit Human Rights

Meanwhile, at-risk populations, including refugees, fall further behind

Some governments exploited the coronavirus pandemic to crack down on dissent and in many places the gaps between rich and poor grew even wider, according to Amnesty International’s “The State of the World’s Human Rights” report for the year 2020, released on April 7.

Various states in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) used COVID-19 to justify suppressing speech, the researchers found.

In five Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries – Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – the government arrested people who criticized their national response to the novel coronavirus on social media.

In North Africa, leaders in Algeria, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia, under the guise of states of emergency, detained critics of their handling of the pandemic. The governments in these countries also prosecuted journalists and civic leaders for their less-than-glowing coverage of authorities’ responses.

Health care personnel who dared to sound the alarm over how the country was reacting to the virus found themselves subjected to criminal liability in Iran and Egypt.

The pandemic particularly hurt already at-risk populations in the MENA region.

“Across MENA, 2020 was a catastrophic year for prisoners, refugees, migrants and minorities who are already marginalized and due to COVID-19 have found their situation more precarious than ever. The pandemic has amplified divisions, discrimination and inequalities that already exist in the region,” Heba Morayef, regional director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International, said in a press release. “It is crucial that governments in MENA ensure the health care they provide, including vaccines, is delivered without discrimination.”

Amnesty accuses Israel of such bias for not vaccinating Palestinians. Israel says that under the Oslo Accords, the Palestinians are responsible for their own health care services.

Elsewhere in the region in 2020, migrant workers, mostly from Asia and Africa, were subject to further exploitation from the kefala work sponsorship system. Found mostly in the GCC countries, the kefala system ties workers’ legal status in the country to their employment status.

According to Amnesty, many workers were fired, including thousands in Jordan, without cause and were not compensated or faced long delays in getting compensation for the labor they provided. This has been a common problem in the kefala system even before the pandemic.

Refugees in the region often lacked access to proper housing and health care, which made them more likely to catch the coronavirus, the researchers wrote.

Here are the latest COVID-19 numbers for the Middle East and North Africa as of 7:30 am Greenwich Mean Time (UTC±0) on Thursday.

Country Confirmed Cases Deaths Recovered Active Cases
Afghanistan 56,943 2,516 51,940 2,487
Algeria 118,004 3,116 82,192 32,696
Bahrain 151,931 547 141,119 10,265
Cyprus 49,366 266 2,057 47,043
Djibouti 9,306 90 7,225 1,991
Egypt 207,293 12,290 157,450 37,553
Iran 1,984,348 63,699 1,675,891 244,758
Iraq 895,622 14,572 794,444 86,606
Israel 835,216 6,266 824,160 4,790
Jordan 650,681 7,469 570,327 72,885
Kuwait 241,469 1,379 226,026 14,064
Lebanon 485,918 6,512 391,197 88,209
Libya 165,287 2,772 151,189 11,326
Mauritania 17,974 450 17,266 258
Morocco 499,688 8,867 486,349 4,472
Oman 166,685 1,735 149,049 15,901
Pakistan 705,517 15,124 623,399 66,994
Palestinian Territories 259,133 2,753 226,090 30,290
Qatar 186,201 320 167,480 18,401
Saudi Arabia 394,952 6,719 381,189 7,044
Somalia 11,978 576 5,058 6,344
Sudan 30,111 2,063 24,214 3,834
Syria 19,761 1,342 13,549 4,870
Tunisia 264,994 9,087 221,545 34,362
Turkey 3,633,925 32,943 3,194,978 406,004
United Arab Emirates 476,019 1,520 460,841 13,658
Yemen 5,047 986 1,886 2,175
Total 12,523,369 205,979 11,048,110 1,269,280

 

Steven Ganot contributed to this report.

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