The Bahrain Forum for Human Rights said in a statement that the Bahraini authorities have reintroduced the policy of forced deportation by deporting Bahraini citizen Madiha Makki Ibrahim Habil (40 years old), the wife of opposition cleric Sheikh Abdullah Al-Dakkak, to Iran for retaliatory and illegal reasons relating to her husband’s opposing activity. The BFHR added that her deportation came within a campaign of targeting and abusing political and human rights activists, clerics and their families, which indicates increasing repression against the political opposition majority in the country.

The BFHR pointed out that resorting to this measure by the authorities violates article 17 (b) of Bahrain’s Constitution and article 12, paragraph 2 and 4, of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and constitutes a clear violation of her right to remain in her homeland as an indigenous citizen and to have the freedom of movement from and to Bahrain as a guaranteed right.

The BFHR added that this security measure is one of the results of activating the role of the National Security Agency, which has recently been pursuing a number of activists and their families, according to some victims.

According to what the victim told the BFHR, she was returning to Bahrain on July 19, 2017 at 6 pm. She stayed at the airport, where the National Security Agency interrogated her until 10:20 pm and asked her to cooperate with them and spy on her husband. Then they released her and she went to her family. The next day at noon, she was summoned by the National Security Agency in Muharraq and interrogated from 1:25 PM to 4:30 PM. They then detained her until 6:00 pm, and when they found out that she was determined to refuse their request to spy on her husband, she was taken to the Bahrain International Airport and kept there until after 10:00 pm. Then, a security officer came and said to her, "I came to tell you a message that your nationality is revoked as your husband, and that you are forbidden to return to Bahrain, and the plane will take you to Dubai and then to Mashhad." Then she replied, "I am not engaged in political activities, so why has this measure been taken?” The security officer replied, “Your only sin is that your husband is Abdullah Al-Dakkak, whose nationality is revoked, and you are not supposed to stay with him.” They insulted her and made accusations and disdained her husband – who was stripped of his nationality on March 30, 2017 –before her, and then she was forcibly deported outside Bahrain on July 20, 2017.