Bahrain Mirror (Exclusive): On December 7, the prisons' administration of the Bahraini Interior Ministry designated itself as the best institution in the Middle East implementing preventive measures against Coronavirus (COVID-19). It claimed that a French company named BUREAU VERITAS granted it this title.

It would be a waste of time to look for this French company and discover the reasons for allocating such a prize to the Middle East, as well as find out the number of applicants who applied or may have even paid for it, as the conditions of prisoners in Bahrain are the greatest evidence of the contrary.

The "preventive measures" implemented by the prison administration have failed. The ministry can no longer brag about the measures which can keep Coronavirus out of prisons and prevent the death of its inmates.

The Coronavirus has begun to spread in Jaw Central Prison, threatening to cause a major national disaster. More than 4,000 prisoners are at risk of contracting Coronavirus, especially since their immunity is considered less than others due to the conditions of detention, malnutrition and the health conditions they have been suffering from for years.

Jaw prison is also one of the most overcrowded prisons, as dozens of inmates are piled up in small prison cells, which makes social distancing and isolation measures claimed by the Interior Ministry impossible. What makes people believe that infected prisoners would receive medical care, while they have been deprived of it the whole past year!

What makes things so catastrophic is the prison administration's failure to deal with the crisis. The Interior Ministry announced only three positive cases, while human rights groups counted about 50. This reflects a lack of transparency and absence of plans to deal with the spread of the virus.

One of the prisoners who is sentenced to life in prison told his family on Sunday (March 28, 2021) that the prison administration is lost. "We have not received meals since the virus started to spread (...) we can no longer find anything to eat."

"There is nothing in the canteen to fill us up. We are totally forgotten here," he added.

"They left us hungry (...) if they are no longer able to provide us with food, it would be better for them and us to release us."

This is one of the prisoners' statements on the one hand and the statement issued by the Interior Ministry on the other hand doesn't include details on the number of cases or conditions of the infected.

The information mentioned in the Interior Ministry statement was refuted by the prisoners who spoke about their conditions that are deteriorating day after another. How can the prison administration stop the spread of the virus inside closed prison cells when it fails to provide inmates with basic necessities such as food?

Arabic Version