JEDDAH: The Makkah branch of the National Human Rights Society (NHRS) has stepped up its efforts to help a detainee who is to be deported to an African country despite protesting he is, in fact, a Saudi citizen.
An NHRS official is at the deportation center of the Passports Department in Jeddah after the man was arrested in August on suspicion that he had overstayed in the Kingdom.
Arab News learned the NHRS representative, Maetuk Al-Shareef, visited the detainee in the deportation center on Oct. 8.
The department is currently investigating the case although the man did not produce any clear documentation to prove his Saudi nationality.
However, the detainee did possess a document issued by the Makkah High Court that mentioned his name was Mukhtar, one of two sons born to a Nigerian woman and Saudi national Muhammad Ali Fatahallah. The document revealed Fatahallah had submitted an application to the Civil Status Department requesting the issue of identity cards for both his sons.
The detainee told the NHRS official he had no idea where his father and brother were and that he had been looking for them for the past several years.
After being arrested by the department the man was first put in a ward of the detention center earmarked for cases that are pending.
He was then transferred to another section for people about to be deported. He has now been moved to another ward after he protested against the department’s decision.
Arab News also learned that an official from the Investigation and Prosecution Commission (IPC) visited the deportation center last week demanding why the man had been detained.
