Alarm at Doha Central Prison over unsafe conditions for coronavirus

The Qatari prison authorities should immediately implement protocols to protect inmates and prison staff amidst the danger of the COVID-19 disease outbreak in Doha's central prison, as demanded by Human Rights Watch (HRW), a non-governmental organization dedicated to researching, defending and promoting human rights.  

Qatari officials should reduce the prison population to allow for social distancing and ensure that all prisoners have access to information and optimal medical care. The authorities should also establish adequate hygiene and cleaning protocols including supplies of masks, disinfectants and gloves to reduce the risk of infection, according to the NGO. 

“Qatari authorities should move quickly to avoid wider spread of coronavirus that risks infecting prisoners, prison staff, and Doha residents,” said Michael Page, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Qatar can start by releasing vulnerable prisoners such as older people and those held for low-level or nonviolent offenses and by ensuring that the remaining prisoners have adequate access to medical care", said the institution.

Human Rights Watch contacted six foreign detainees in recent days and they detailed deteriorating prison conditions in Doha's only central prison after several prisoners were suspected of contracting the coronavirus. The detainees noted that they had been unofficially informed of the alleged outbreak by guards in recent weeks, although this was not publicly confirmed by the Qatari authorities. 

The guards sealed and isolated the block where the alleged outbreak occurred, but not before transferring a number of detainees from that same area to other sections of the prison that are already overcrowded and unsanitary. They expressed that the prison authorities also restricted the limited access of prisoners to basic medical care, leaving older prisoners and those with previous pathologies at even greater risk of serious consequences if infected. 

Prison officials have reportedly given prisoners incomplete information. One prisoner said that on May 2, 2020, a prison guard told inmates that five prisoners in another block had become infected, sparking fear among the community there.  

“Since then more prisoners, possibly many who are infected, have come to our block,” the prisoner remarked.  “We have beds for 96 people, and now we have around 150 prisoners in this block.” On May 6, the prisoner also noted that another prison guard advised him that 47 cases had been registered at that time.

In addition, prisoners said that their block has only eight bathrooms for 150 inmates and that there is a pressing lack of minimum facilities for the welfare of the prison population. “People are sleeping on the floor, in the [prison] mosque, in the library; and everyone is scared of each other, we don’t know who could infect us,” the prisoner said. “At a time when we should be isolated from each other, we are being kept like animals in a shed.” Other prisoners corroborated the overcrowded situation, according to HRW. 

Prisoners said that during the previous week, guards and prison staff had begun wearing masks and gloves and that medical staff had stopped visiting. “No one knows who could be sick,” said one prisoner. “This one person has [what appears to be] the flu in our block, but is it flu, is it virus, who knows? No one is checking. Until May, nurses used to come and check us and if we were sick and wanted to go to the hospital we could go, now there are no nurses and no hospital visits".

Another prisoner gave evidence of the poor sanitary conditions: “The nurses who used to come and give insulin shots to patients with diabetes no longer come, the guards hand out the insulin injections and the patients inject themselves.”

Prisoners said they have limited access to soap and water, that they have not been given hand sanitizer, and that social distancing measures are impossible, given the overcrowding. Two of them reported that, on May 7, they all received two masks each. Meanwhile, one prisoner said that prison authorities have yet to disinfect his blocks and continue to provide only one bar of soap per month to each prisoner despite the need for better cleaning and hygiene protocols during the pandemic.  

“Yesterday the guards gave me two masks for the first time,” one prisoner said on May 8. “They said wear them, but no one is wearing them. Most prisoners just put them away and the guards don’t really care, they aren’t telling anyone to wear them.”. He said the administration did not officially confirm the presence of the virus in the prison or communicate the recent changes to them in a clear and transparent manner, causing greater fear and anxiety among the inmates.  

Qatar currently has 16 deaths nationwide and more than 37,000 diagnosed cases, according to official figures. Thus, the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Qatar continues to rise, with peaks such as 1,733 cases recorded in a single day on May 14. With more than 37,000 positive cases, Qatar is one of the countries with the highest infection rate in the world, more than 1.15% of the population. Only San Marino and the Vatican have recorded higher infection rates per capita. 

Given the global situation with the coronavirus health crisis, governments should reduce their prison populations by early release of low-risk detainees, including those held on remand for non-violent and minor crimes, or whose continued detention is equally unnecessary or unjustified, Human Rights Watch said.  

Prisoners at high risk of suffering more severely from the effects of the coronavirus, such as the elderly and those with underlying health conditions, should also be considered for release, taking into account whether the detention facility has the capacity to protect their health, including access to appropriate treatment, and factors such as the seriousness of the offence and the time served. Prison authorities should publicly disclose their plans to reduce the risk of coronavirus infection in their facilities and the steps they will take to contain the infection and protect prisoners, staff and visitors.  

“The reported spread of COVID-19 in Qatar’s central jail could fast become a public health disaster,” Michael Page said. “Qatari authorities have the power to reduce the harm, but they need to act quickly and decisively.”

In view of the data recorded, the Government of the Gulf country recently decreed the mandatory use of the mask in public "until further notice". Penalties for offenders can be up to three years in prison and a fine of 200,000 rials (about 51,000 euros). 

Other measures to prevent the spread of the virus in the Arab country have included the closure of restaurants, cinemas, schools, shopping centres and mosques. Construction work has continued, especially on the stadiums for the 2022 World Cup. These measures generated controversy because of the very poor working conditions and the absence of health measures to deal with the coronavirus, as denounced by the immigrant workers themselves, who also live in overcrowded industrial areas on the outskirts, and revealed by media outlets such as Foreign Policy.