The head of the Parliamentary Freedoms and Human Rights Committee, Abdullah Abu Zaid, said that economic conditions are among the most important reasons for the high rates of crime and drug abuse, which constitutes an additional burden on the security services concerned in dealing with these crimes.

This came when he chaired a meeting of the committee, which was held on Sunday, in which he was briefed on the role of the Anti-Narcotics Department – affiliated with the Public Security Directorate, in dealing with drug abuse and trafficking cases, and the mechanism used by the Correction and Rehabilitation Centers Department in dealing with sick cases and hunger strikes.

Abu Zeid added, in the presence of the Director of the Prisons Department, Brigadier General Ashraf Al-Omari, and the Director of the Anti-Narcotics Department, Colonel Hassan Al-Qudah, that “Freedom of Representatives” supports and supports all security agencies that ensure the comfort and security of citizens, and also supports the efforts of the Anti-Narcotics Department, which always seeks to combat this phenomenon and reduce it. spread among the people of the country.

He explained that the committee is following up with interest all issues related to inmates and the conditions of correction and rehabilitation centers, calling for the need for greater attention to the quality of services provided to inmates, especially in the field of health care.

drugs

For his part, the judges confirmed that the problems of poverty and unemployment are the main factors in the spread of drug abuse, especially among the youth group, explaining that the latest statistics revealed that there are approximately 11,718 drug cases, including 3,290 trade cases.

He pointed out that there is a new mechanism followed by the administration in the process of tracking and focusing on trade and promotion issues, which contributes to reducing abuse issues, indicating that there is joint cooperation between all security and military agencies to combat this scourge.

Qudah said that the responsibility of the Narcotics Control Department is not limited to control operations, but rather performs other tasks as preventive and remedial methods, including spreading awareness campaigns among young people, bringing the number of awareness activities carried out by the Department this year to 2224 activities, most of which were concentrated in universities and educational institutions.

He continued, “Today we are facing a great challenge, which requires the unification of all national and popular efforts to combat this scourge, especially the family, which bears the largest role in monitoring and treating the addicted person and bringing him back to the right path.”

prisons

For his part, Al-Omarien said that the correction and rehabilitation centers have a capacity of 13,282 inmates, distributed among 17 centres, adding that the number of inmates exceeded twenty thousand, which constitutes a challenge and a burden on the management of the centers in the process of management and organization.

He added that the Correctional and Rehabilitation Centers Law guarantees the inmate the right to health care, so that the Ministry of Health undertakes this task, as there is a specialist doctor and a nurse in each center, who follow up on all sick cases.

Al-Omarien stressed that the administration of the correction and rehabilitation centers does not look at the inmates with their judgments and the nature of the crime, but rather looks at them with the eye of humanity, and that they are people who have rights, foremost among them: health care, and the right to go on a hunger strike.

He explained that any inmate who wishes to go on hunger strike must submit a written notification to the center’s management, where he is dealt with according to the system and official instructions, then is isolated from other inmates, and his demands are presented to the center’s management.

Al-Omarien stressed that it is impossible for the center to force the striking inmate to break his strike, but it is his right, adding that despite that, the center provides him with all meals at the specified times.

He added that if the inmate continues his hunger strike, the public prosecutor is contacted to consider his case and demands, taking into account the type of offense and the sentence applied to him, in addition to the fact that he is presented daily for health follow-up throughout the strike period.

In turn, the deputies who attended the meeting praised the tremendous efforts made by the security services to combat all forms of crime, especially drug trafficking and promotion, as the main reason for the spread of crime.

They called for the need to intensify efforts to combat this phenomenon and limit its spread, by intensifying awareness activities in all universities, as well as the importance of the media’s role in spreading warning messages about the danger of this scourge.

With regard to the situation of inmates in reform and rehabilitation centers, the deputies stressed the importance of the inmate receiving all forms of health care and care, saying that the general situation in prisons “does not rise to the required level, due to the large overcrowding there, which causes additional psychological pressure on the inmate.”