Independent UN experts urge Bahrain to ensure prisoners have adequate food, water in scorching heat
Independent experts with the United Nations have urged Bahrain to ensure those held at its Jaw prison have access to adequate food, water and medical care
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Independent experts with the United Nations urged Bahrain on Thursday to ensure those held at its Jaw prison have access to adequate food, water and medical care after they received allegations guards have cut air conditioning in the island kingdom's sweltering summer.
Bahrain called the accusations “false” in a statement sent to The Associated Press and insisted prisoners receive “the same health-care provision as members of the public.” However, the U.N. experts' request comes a year after a mass hunger strike by prisoners at the Jaw Rehabilitation and Reform Center, a facility holding many of the prisoners identified by human rights activists as dissidents who oppose the rule of the island's Al Khalifa family.
The country’s Sunni rulers have long faced complaints of discrimination from the island’s Shiite majority. The experts said they had been getting “worrying accusations” about prisoners' conditions since March.
“Detainees held in some buildings of the prison are often being denied required medical care and do not have regular access to adequate food and safe drinking water," the U.N. experts said. “Particularly worrying are allegations that authorities have cut air conditioning, exposing prisoners to extreme heat, with temperatures arising to 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit)".
