NHRC asks EU Parliament for a fact-finding mission to Saudi to find missing citizens

Ever since the illegal blockade of Qatar started almost two years ago, communication between Qatar and the blockading nations have come down drastically.

The fate of three Qatari nationals, who disappeared in Saudi Arabia after the start of the blockade, remains unknown.

Qatar’s National Human Rights Committee (NHRC) Chairman Dr Ali bin Smaikh Al Marri has called on the European Parliament to send a fact-finding mission to Saudi Arabia to understand what happened to the missing Qatari citizens, reported Gulf Times.

He called on Qatar’s government to take all legal measures to pursue their fate and demand their immediate release. He also called on the government to go to the UN Security Council to file a complaint regarding the UAE’s failure to comply with the decision of the International Court of Justice.

In a ruling almost six months ago, ICJ had demanded that UAE allow Qatari students to resume their education at its universities. But students allege that the Emirate continues to ban Qatari students from its educational institutions even today, according to Qatar Tribune.

Speaking at a hearing at the European Parliament, Dr Al Marri praised the initiative made by its human rights committee to hold a series of seminars to listen to the struggles of the blockade's victims.

He also praised the move of the European Parliament's Committee on Arab Peninsula Affairs for responding, albeit belatedly, to the victims’ calls.

He noted that the stories the attendees will listen to mirror the stories of thousands of other victims of the blockade because they disappeared forcibly with no clarity provided on their fate.

He highlighted the case of three Qatari citizens who forcibly disappeared in Saudi Arabia since the beginning of the blockade, and efforts made by the NHRC to push Saudi authorities to declare their fates failed.

He called on the European Parliament to send a mission to Saudi Arabia to find out the fate of those Qatari citizens, and to pressure the Saudi government to release them.

He stressed that the NHRC had provided all the information on the identity of the three Qatari nationals requested by the relevant UN mechanisms, adding that the committee was in constant communication with the UN team concerned with forcible disappearance.