In the past two days, human rights activists in the Kingdom have launched a campaign on social media, calling for the saving travel ban “hostages”.
The bloggers criticized the Saudi authorities for denying hundreds of families of prisoners of conscience and dissidents abroad the right to travel without any legal basis.
The travel ban is a gross violation of international law and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which stipulates that everyone who is legally present within the territory of a state has the right to freedom of movement and freedom to choose his or her place of residence.
The hostages of the travel ban constitute all the families of victims of arbitrary arrests from the Saudi regime, and it constitutes collective punishment for the families of prisoners of conscience and opponents.
The Saudi regime prohibits 17 members of the family of the prominent preacher Salman al-Awda from traveling due to the arrest of their father three years ago, including childhood juveniles who do not pose a danger to anyone, but the authorities insist on using them as a pressure card.
Also, all members of the family of the human rights activist are still prisoners of conscience of Lujane al-Hathloul, foremost of which is her father and mother, who have been under arbitrary travel bans for nearly two years, and there is no reason for that except for their daughter’s human rights activities.
The Saudi authorities exercise arbitrary bans on traveling extensively without a court ruling, and it is difficult for victims to obtain legal relief from these arbitrary decisions, due to the lack of independent authorities.
For the second year in a row, the Saudi government continues to prevent the family of Dr. Sheikh Saeed Al-Ghamdi from traveling.
The family of 11 children, ages form 3 to 11, along with their mothers, became aware of the travel ban in September 2017, as official authorities returned them from the airport when they were going to travel.
Al-Ghamdi, an academic has resided in Britain since 2018 and has critical opinions on what is going on in the Kingdom regarding political, social and other issues, and constantly talks about human rights crimes and violations in the country, such as arrests, torture and executions, through social networks and in forums and the media.
In August 2019, he also established the Arab Peninsula for Studies and Research Center, and actively participates in the activity of the immigrant opposition from Saudi Arabia.
The harassment that al-Ghamdi was subjected to due to his activities at home, in 2013 prompted him to reside outside the Kingdom.
He was summoned for investigation five times by the General Investigation Service, the last of which was in 2012, when he interrogated him for hours because he signed a statement with others. He used to visit the country intermittently, but he stopped after the arrest campaign of September 2017, in order to avoid arrest.
Al-Ghamdi’s family travel ban coincided with the September 2017 arrests.
The Kingdom submitted a formal request to the Turkish authorities to arrest and surrender Al-Ghamdi, and sent its personnel to locate his residence and office, indicating a targeted targeting.
In August 2019, in light of the travel ban imposed on his family, his child died of fame, and due to the confirmed dangers threatening him by the Al Saud government, he was deprived of his farewell, and his family is still deprived of meeting him.
The European Saudi Organization for Human Rights puts the travel and academic deprivation of the family of the activist and academic Sheikh Saeed Al-Ghamdi within the government’s arbitrary policies implemented by the Presidency of the State Security, against activists and human rights defenders at home and abroad, which the organization has documented in part in a previous report: (Saudi Arabia : Retaliates against activists abroad, persecuting their families at home and treating them as hostages).
Special rapporteurs of the United Nations have referred to the violations and arrests of the family of the activist Omar Abdulaziz Al-Zahrani due to his activities, in a letter to the Saudi government sent in July 2019, and demanding explanations.
The organization affirms that these measures violate international law, especially the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, of which Article 12 guarantees the right “for every individual to leave any country, including his own, and is entitled to return to it.”
It also violates the Declaration on the Protection of Human Rights Defenders adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 10, 1998, where Article 12 states that “the State shall take the necessary measures to ensure that the competent authorities of every individual, in association and with others, are protected from any violence, or Threats, reprisals, or discrimination that is harmful, in practice or law, pressure, or any other arbitrary measure as a result of his lawful practice.
In addition, the arbitrary prevention of an entire family from traveling, including children, violates the travel documents system, whose sixth article affirms that “travel is prohibited only by a court ruling or by a decision issued by the Minister of the Interior related to security for a period of time, and in both cases the ban is traveling within a period not exceeding one week from the date of the judgment or decision prohibiting him from traveling.
Retaliatory measures began to escalate during the reign of King Salman and his son, Crown Prince Muhammad, and as the kingdom does not adhere to the international treaties and agreements that it acceded to.
The Kingdom wishes to silence all voices opposing and criticizing the existing policies, and practicing various pressure and intimidation activities on activists residing abroad, which confirms the fierce repressive approach of the Al Saud government.