100,000 sign Amnesty's #LetThemFly petition to end Saudi travel bans on activists

Nearly 100,000 people have signed Amnesty International’s petition calling on Saudi Arabia to lift punitive travel bans imposed on human rights defenders in the kingdom. 

The petition, which was part of the rights group's #LetThemFly campaign, is now closed and hopes to end the bans that have separated activists stuck in Saudi Arabia from their families living abroad.

As we close our #LetThemFly petition, around 100,000 voices from across the globe are calling on the Saudi Arabian authorities to lift all travel bans imposed on human rights defenders and activists. It's time to end the ruthless crackdown on human rights.https://t.co/onAMRBv3IQ

— Amnesty International (@amnesty) September 26, 2022

Saudi Arabia is known for imposing travel bans on dissidents that often follow lengthy jail sentences. These include the cases of Raif Badawi, who was sentenced to a decade in prison followed by another ten-year travel ban.

More recently, a Saudi PhD student Salma al-Shehab was sentenced to 34 years in jail followed by a 34-year-travel ban in August this year. 

"It is beyond time that the severe repression unleashed against critics is replaced by genuine respect for human rights," said Diana Semaan, Amnesty International's Acting Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa. 

"Saudi Arabia must live up to its public relations campaigns depicting a rights respecting society, rather than darkening the lives of activists at home and abroad," she added.

Amnesty International has documented the cases of 40 human rights defenders in Saudi Arabia being banned from leaving the country ranging from five to 35 years, as well as 39 cases of unofficial travel bans that affect the relatives of activists.

Many relatives of activists have moved abroad, fearing retaliation from the state or ostracisation.