WASHINGTON: Human Rights Watch on Wednes­day accused Emirati auth­orities of arbitrarily detaining for more than 15 months as many as 2,700 Afghan evacuees who have no legal pathways to refugee status or resettlement elsewhere.

Many of those housed in Emirates Humanitarian City are suffering from depression and other psychological ailments, have no access to legal counsel, and have inadequate educational services for their children, a Human Rights Watch report said.

“Living conditions have also deteriorated significantly, with detainees describing overcrowding, decay of infrastructure, and insect infestations,” the report said of the facility in Abu Dhabi.

The report said Human Rights Watch received no responses to requests for comment from the UAE ministries of interior and foreign affairs.

The US State Department office that handles the relocation of Afghans told the group in a letter that the US commitment to resettling eligible Afghans — including those in Emirates Hum­anitarian City — is an “end­uring one”, the report said.

Emirati officials previously have said the UAE offered to temporarily host thousands of Afghan refugees evacuated after the Taliban takeover of Kabul in August 2021.

The UAE, they have said, was committed to ensuring Afghan evacuees lived in safety, security and dignity, and Abu Dhabi was working with the US embassy to resettle them.

The evacuees were hou­sed in Emirates Humani­tarian City and Tasameem Workers City — apartment complexes converted into refugee housing — and many eventually were clea­red for resettlement in the United States, Canada and other countries. Between 2,500 and 2,700 Afghans, however, did not qualify for resettlement elsewhere and as of January remained in what the report called “arbitrary detention”.

“Emirati authorities have kept thousands of Afghan asylum seekers loc­ked up for over 15 months in cramped, miserable conditions with no hope of progress on their cases,” said Joey Shea, Human Rights Watch’s UAE researcher.

Sixteen Afghans interviewed late last year by the group said they could not freely leave the site, with security guards or minders watching them closely on hospital visits and during the only shopping mall visit they have been permitted.

The report said Emirati authorities are not abiding by international law and UN guidelines for dealing with asylum seekers and migrants, making their detention “arbitrary”.

The UAE is not a party to the UN Refugee Convention.

HRW called on the UAE to immediately release the Afghans.

Published in Dawn, March 16th, 2023