Saudi compassion: Chadians denied access to schooling and emergency healthcare

REUTERS FOUNDATION - ALERTNET: (New York, September 6, 2006) Saudi Arabia should immediately end its discrimination against its 100,000 Chadian residents, most of whom were born in the kingdom but are increasingly denied the rights to basic education and emergency healthcare, Human Rights Watch said today. Saudi Arabia's decision to target Chadian children for expulsion from school is arbitrary and discriminatory.

For the past two years, the Saudi government has stopped renewing one- to two-year residency permits for all Chadians in Saudi Arabia, Human Rights Watch learned through telephone interviews with six Chadian nationals in and around Jeddah. Thus by the end of August, nearly all of the estimated 100,000 Chadian residents of Saudi Arabia will lack valid permits. The overwhelming majority of them were born in Saudi Arabia and have never lived in Chad; many have never even visited the African country. Under Saudi naturalization laws, it is nearly impossible for Chadians to acquire Saudi citizenship because they generally do not fulfill the educational and financial requirements. Saudi Arabia: Chadians Barred From Schools, Hospitals [Source: Human Rights Watch]

Mark Alexander