(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Mohammed Osman | The Peninsula
Humanitarian situation resulting from the blockade imposed on Qatar by neighbouring countries has become unprecedented phenomenon in the Gulf region.
As Qatari nationals who were living with their families or studying or working in Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Bahrain were ordered to leave within 14 days as well citizens of these three countries were also given the same time-frame to leave Qatar.
As a result, 1200 people of mixed-citizenship Qatari couples and their children were forced to split from their families, while others have lost jobs or places in education during the crisis. Last month, the Qatar National Human Rights Committee (QNHRC) said it had registered as many as 3,446 complaints related to human rights violations committed by the siege countries since the blockade imposed on Qatar on June 5.
The violations were mainly related to residency, properties, religious practices, health, family, travel movements, education and the right to work, said the committee.
Saudi Arabia topped the three blockading Gulf countries with 60 percent of the total number of violations of 2,045 out of total 3,446 complaints received by the NHRC at that time.
While the UAE committed the highest number of violations with regard to the right of education with 61 percent of the violations and 367 cases of violations with regard to the right to ownership property.
The majority of violations reported are related to restriction of movement with total 724 complaints followed by violations related to properties 633, family related violations 331, violations linked to the right of religious practices 158, residency related violations 58 and education related complaints are 55.
A recent report published by QNHRC said: 'A total of 919 students including 213 Qataris who were studying in the Saudi-led bloc and 706 students from the seize countries at different levels of education who were studying in Qatar were forced by their countries to discontinue their studies.
On September 10, Qatar's Minister of Education and Higher Education stressed that there is no change in the status of students from the siege countries and they are welcome to continue their education in Qatari educational institutions.
The Ministry of Education earlier last month said it had receive over 5,306 at different education levels and has admitted most of the students in government and private schools.
While university students disrupted their education in the siege countries, the Ministry said it has created opportunities for them to continue their educations in cooperation with Qatar University, Community College, Qatar and other private university in Qatar. Additionally, some of the students were granted with approval to join other universities abroad.
'Because of the crisis and measures taken by the siege countries, 213 Qatari students were forced to discontinue their education in UAE (130 students), Saudi Arabia (55 students) and Bahrain (28 students), said QNHRC in a report issued on the eve of the new academic year.
There were a total of 21,255 people who applied to perform Haj in August but due to logistic, financial and security restrictions imposed by the Saudi authorities, none of them has managed to fulfil his wishes to visit the holy sites in Saudi Arabia.
The Saudi authority for the first time in the history banned Qatari pilgrims and refused to pay any attention to the voices raised for facilitating Qatari pilgrims by global human rights organisations and Muslims across the globe, harming the sacred spirit of Islam using the fifth pillar of Islam — the Haj — as political tool to pressure Qatar and achieve political goals under the ongoing diplomatic crisis developed with the imposition of siege on Qatar.
There are around 25 Haj operating companies in Qatar, who lost around QR200m because of failure to send pilgrims to Saudi Arabia.
Saudi restrictions hindered the Qatari pilgrims from performing Haj included closure of the land, air and sea, ban of money transfer, closure of the Qatari consulate in Jeddah and the embassy in Riyadh, and the Saudi embassy in Doha and banning Saudi local companies to provide accommodation and transportation services to Qatari pligrims.
The QNHRC conveyed the issue of Haj and other types of human rights violations committed by the blockade countries to over 600 human right organisations worldwide, UN organisations and government bodies to end the ongoing violations to basic rights of Qatari nationals and citizens of the siege countries.
On the other hand, the siege countries have deprived some 984 Qatari businessmen and owners of properties and livestock (Saudi Arabia 607, the UAE 331 and Bahrain 46) to use their bank accounts or transfer money to their employees.
Human right advocating organisations including the QNHRC noted that the large number of violations against Qatari owners of properties and companies in these three Gulf countries have proved that the business environment is not safe and legislatives protecting the rights of investors are not respected.
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