Reports have emerged that Saudi Arabia is keeping hundreds if not thousands of African migrants locked in heinous conditions just like the now-famous Libyan slave camps as part of their efforts to try and stop the spread of Covid-19, an investigation by The Sunday Telegraph has found. Graphic images sent to the newspaper by migrants held inside the detention centers show hundreds of men lying shirtless in tightly packed rows in rooms without windows.
One image actually shows what appears to be a body of a migrant who had died of heatstroke with many others barely getting enough food and water to survive. The guards even disrespect dead bodies of the migrants as seen by the way they handle them with such vindictiveness when they die. Another picture shows a young African man hanging from a window in an internal tiled wall. His friends say the adolescent killed himself after losing hope as they have been held in detention since April as if it is them who brought Covid-19 to the country.
Why detain them in the first place? Is it a crime that there is Covid-19 in the world today? When one looks at the images that have been released, one cannot help but cry and left wondering why in the 21st century we still have such cruel people in this world. These are the same people who are helping Saudi Arabia develop, and yet, instead of showing them gratitude and mercy, they mistreat them like that. Many of them have visible scars on their bodies sustained from beatings from the guards who often hurl racial abuse at them. They are being treated like animals and beaten every day, why? They are also denied food by the authorities that put them in those detention camps in the first place. Why not deport them back to their countries of origin if their services are no longer need.
These images and testimony have elicited outrage from among human rights activists across the world and have resonance in the light of the global “Black Lives Matter” movement. Many of these detainees are from the Horn of Africa nations, but still, others come from East and West Africa. Countries such as Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania, have a lot of their young men and women working in the Gulf countries doing menial jobs to eke out an honest living and send money back home to their families. Yet, they are subjected to all forms of abuse in those countries than anywhere else in the world. The girl child who travels there is made to live with so much shame as most of them are raped and discriminated against by the Arabs in those countries. One young lady from Uganda that I met last January on a flight from Entebbe to Nairobi, and was traveling to one Gulf country (name of country withheld), told me how bad the situation is in those countries, especially, for women. They are given their own plates, cups, and spoons as they are deemed unclean and cannot eat from the same plate with the host family.
Oil-rich Saudi Arabia has long exploited African and Asian migrant workers. Statistics indicate that 6.6 million foreign workers made up about 20 percent of the Gulf nation’s population, most occupying low paid and often physically arduous jobs. Many of them are employed in the construction and manual domestic roles that Saudi nationals prefer not to do themselves.
What makes one wonder is the fact that most of these migrant workers in the Gulf countries, especially those from the Horn of Africa, East, and West Africa, happen to be Muslim. Even the majority of those coming from Asia, are Muslims. How then does a country like Saudi Arabia, the cradle of Islam, practice discrimination on fellow Muslims like this? Saudi Arabia is the home of the custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, and yet these people who are in charge of such heritage are busy perpetuating racism in such a manner. This shows that what they are practicing is not real Islam, it is a fake Islam. Shame on them!
I call upon the African Union (AU) to probe this story and establish the truth. Once the truth is uncovered, please take measures against the regime. Please do not be bought by money from these idiots and ensure that you protect Africans. Africa can actually do without these Arabs if it wants to. Demand to be treated with dignity because you are not slaves to anyone, you are a free people. The same call goes to our leaders in individual African countries, especially, those countries with large populations of their nationals working in Gulf countries, to call on the Arab leaders to respect the rights of the African people. Gone are the days of slavery when through the collaboration of the African chiefs, they bought slaves from Africa. Any African leader who is a (house nigger) or collaborator acting on the side of these evil Arabs, must be overthrown from power. I say so because if the African leaders dare to raise this issue with the Saudis, they will be bribed and told to forget about it and to instead, issue statements about how good the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is to the African nations. We do not want such kind of behavior to come from our leaders, simply protect your people who elected you to the power of which without them, you are nothing remember!
