STATEMENT VIA FRONTLINE DEFENDERS:
12 April 2012
Egypt – Deportation of
Bahraini human rights defender Mr Nabeel Rajab
On 11 April
2012, prominent Bahraini human rights defender Mr Nabeel Rajab was
stopped upon arrival at Cairo International Airport and subsequently denied
entry to Egypt and ordered to leave the country. Nabeel Rajab is the President
of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights and the Gulf Centre for Human Rights. He
was invited to Egypt, together with the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation
of Human Rights Defenders and the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Assembly
and Association, by the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) to
attend a consultative meeting on the human rights situation in the region.
Following his
arrival at Cairo International Airport at 12.30 pm on 11 April, Nabeel Rajab's
passport was seized by airport security officers who did not disclose the
reasons behind the procedure. The airport authorities later stated that Nabeel
Rajab would be deported back to Bahrain on the next flight. CIHRS staff who
reached the airport authorities by phone were told that Nabeel Rajab was on the
list of those prohibited from entering Egypt but no further details were
disclosed.
The
deportation of Nabeel Rajab comes less than two weeks after another Bahraini
human rights defender, Ms Maryam Al Khawaja, daughter of prominent human right
defender and former Front Line Defenders Protection Coordinator on the Middle
East and North Africa Mr Abdulhadi Al Khawaja, was held for several hours at
Cairo International Airport.
Front Line
Defenders is deeply concerned about the denial of entry to Egypt of Nabeel
Rajab and believes that this measure by the Egyptian authorities is solely
motivated by his work as a human rights defender. This is especially the case
given the fact that Nabeel Rajab and Maryam Al Khawaja have both been able to
visit Egypt on a regular basis in the past in relation to human rights
activities in the region.
Front Line Defenders urges the authorities in Egypt to:
1.
Carry out an immediate, thorough and impartial
investigation into the reasons behind Nabeel Rajab's denied access to Egypt
with a view to publishing the results;
2.
Ensure Nabeel Rajab is allowed access to enter
Egypt so that he may be able to carry out his peaceful and legitimate human
rights work;
3.
Guarantee in all circumstances that all human
rights defenders visiting Egypt are able to carry out their legitimate human
rights activities without fear of reprisals and free of all undue restrictions or
arbitrary interference from Government entities.
