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The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights report |
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report
"Members of one Family are under detention."
EOHR's third report on the phenomenon of recurrent detention in Egypt 2002 The economic and social circumstances of the prisoners' families:Many families with more than one member being detained suffer under severe economic problems, because they usually do not have a constant financial resource. In such situations the grandfather, who is most probably very old and suffering from health problems, carries the load of providing the necessary money for the family, which is exactly the opposite of what should normally happen, where the grandfather after working so hard for many years waiting for his son to take over, be in charge and give the grandfather a rest. But this is not the case, and the grandfather is charged with additional load in his final years, while his son, who is mostly innocent, is detained for a crime he did not commit. These bad circumstances do not affect the grandfather only, but the wife and the children, too.Concerning the children:Children of detainees suffer from the absence of their father especially during their early ages and this could be seen in their behavior of isolation and constant fear and feeling of danger. These children are also mistreated by their colleagues at school, because of the fact that their father is imprisoned. They are also deprived of seeing their father, and when they do it is from behind the bars, while other children are enjoying their lives with their fathers around them. All this effects those children since their early years negatively to the extent that they might leave school and choose another road, usually a worst one.Some families living under severe conditions and with great financial problems force their children to work. This creates lots of mental and psychological problems especially that these children are usually treated badly and beaten in the workplace and they can not complain because they need the money. So these kids are deprived of their basic rights and of enjoying life like the rest of the children and this has a negative impact on their future. Concerning the wife:Most of the wives do not work, because of lack of experience and because they have never been in such a situation before. But when their husbands are detained, they start working in order to meet the needs of their children, so they try to find a simple job, which could get them money and at the same time does not keep them out of their homes too long, because these women have to raise their children and gain money at the same time. The wife tries to gain and save money as much as she can in order to go visit her imprisoned husband, to meet her children's basic needs and to offer them security and peace. Nevertheless, some wives ask for a divorce because of the long period that their husbands spend in prison.Some of the wives get bad physical and mental illnesses because of the stress and tension they live in; with the absence of the husband, the obligation of raising the children, and meeting their basic needs, and the absence or shortage of financial source. Also in most cases, the children suffer from many diseases, and the wife and children move to live with the grandparents, which increases tension and overload on the grandparents, who consequently treat the wife and the children in a bad way. A number of the detainees' wives started small scale enterprises like a milk-shop or a place to sell food, but they do not get many customers, because the friends, neighbors and also relatives fear that security men would be suspicious if these people deal with the wives of detainees. That is why people usually avoid buying the products of such wives in order to avoid any problems with the security forces. Moreover, neighbors, friends and relatives usually try to limit if not cut relations with the family of the prisoner, because they believe that such a relationship might be enough reason for the security forces to detain them, too. So they keep away from the detainee's family, who day by day become separated and isolated from the rest of the society. EOHR stresses the need to evaluate the bad effects of long-lasting detention on the detainee himself and his family, especially when the husband is detained for no specific crime. The report on these detainees shows that their first detention decisions are usually made on men between the age of 20-35. This is possibly because of the fact that young people are more prone to violence than old people. It was found out that there are three main reasons why young people engage in violent activities easily: First: Young people are less likely to respect traditions and the traditional way of thinking and behavior and they are more likely to rebel against old ideas and to adopt new ones. Second: Young people are more aware of the present problems within the society; whether political, social or economical. Third: Young people are usually ambitious and have high hopes and dreams about their future. But when they are detained and sent for many years in detention, they realize that all their hopes and dreams will not be fulfilled. That is why there is a need to study, research and evaluate the mental and psychological state of the detainees during their detention period and to find out the impact of the detention on these people, whether negative or positive, and to start applying the policy of partial release on some of them in order to have a united society and to limit the hatred between the detainees and the society as a whole. |
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