I spoke to BBC Newsday about the mass detentions and deportations of African expatriates working in Abu Dhabi.
detention
Kenyan worker’s arrest shows power, and peril, of online advocacy
[Published here June 3, 2021]
BEIRUT, June 3 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – With perfect prose, sizzling sarcasm and a host of anonymous accounts, Malcolm Bidali has waged a one-man social media campaign to improve working conditions for migrant labourers in Qatar for nearly a year.
“It kind of makes me feel like Batman or Superman. You can say the things you want to say, with your own voice and your own style,” said Bidali, 28, speaking to the Thomson Reuters Foundation from Doha.
Continue readingCanadian jihadist says IS foreign fighters ‘hung out to dry’ | AFP
[Published here February 11, 2019]
A Canadian jihadist detained in Syria told AFP on Sunday he has been “hung out to dry” by the Islamic State group like other foreign fighters and appealed to his government for help.
As Syria rebels quit Douma, questions linger over detainees, activists | AFP
[Published here on April 13, 2018]
Damascus (Syria) (AFP) – As Syrian rebels evacuate their holdout town of Douma, hope is dwindling that four iconic activists and hundreds of others suspected to have been kidnapped there will be found alive.
Amnesty accuses Syria of mass hangings in infamous jail | AFP
[Published here on February 7, 2017]
Amnesty International on Tuesday accused Syria’s government of hanging up to 13,000 people at a notorious prison over five years in a “policy of extermination”, two weeks before planned peace talks.
When they took me | NOW News
[Published here November 8, 2013]
This is a multimedia piece best experienced on the website itself, but I have also included the text below.
When the uprising hit Damascus, women were at the front lines of the demonstrations – which meant they, like their male peers, were arrested and detained by Syria’s feared security forces. Three of these women, held for their involvement in the peaceful, civil movement, spoke to NOW about their experiences. While their tales of torture are more psychological than physical, the scars remain. Almost incredulously, they call themselves “lucky,” knowing that the cases of more recently-detained Syrian women have become infinitely more gruesome and physically horrific. Though their names have been changed for safety reasons, these women’s stories remain a potent reminder of a terrifying tool still used by Assad’s security forces: detainment.
MAYA GEBEILY 