Saudi Arabia relaunches efforts to attract dissidents to their homes

Saudi Arabia is trying to attract its citizens abroad to return to the kingdom before penetrating the story of the reform promoted by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

This initiative comes nine months after the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a self-exiled journalist and critic of the Crown Prince, who seriously damaged the reputation of the kingdom. In order to prevent other Saudis living abroad from expressing their concerns about Prince Mohammed's rulers, the authorities are now trying to persuade critics and dissidents to return home with badurances. about their safety on their return, said two people close to the file.

"Someone close to the management or other mediator would usually contact you and say to you:" I have a personal message from the Crown Prince, "promising that there would be no harm in it. or a jail sentence if you decide to accept the offer, "said a Saudi in exile, who was approached.

A standing order aimed at bringing home dissidents seems to be in effect, even as the badbadination of Khashoggi, based in Virginia, plunged Saudi Arabia into its worst diplomatic crisis with the United States since the attacks September 11th.

The strong malaise aroused by a vocal Saudi Diaspora has recently prompted the royal court to commission a study on the subject, said two people with direct knowledge. The study, which remains under review and will probably not be made public, estimated that the number of Saudi political asylum seekers will reach 50,000 by 2030.

The study recommended that the government adopt a more flexible approach to dissidents by offering them incentives to return rather than putting pressure on them and strengthening their resistance.

A small number of Saudi Islamist dissidents have fled to Western capitals such as London and Washington since the 1990s, and some of them have returned after entering into agreements with the government. But while the room for maneuver for activism and freedom of expression inside the kingdom has declined in recent years, a larger group of Saudis has sought a new life at home. ;foreign.

The government did not respond to requests for comment.

Data provided by the United Nations refugee agency show that at least 815 Saudis have claimed asylum in 2017, up from 195 in 2012. The United Kingdom, Canada and the United Germany are among the main destinations of Saudi asylum seekers.

Some of them are government grant students who decide not to come back. Others are women who have escaped the suffocating rules of male guardianship. Although no umbrella organization brings them together, their collaboration and relations pose a new challenge for the Saudi government, which seeks to attract foreign investment to support Prince Mohammed's ambitious reform plans.

"A big part of their concern is that this group abroad is lobbying the UN, the EU and the US Congress," said a Saudi activist based in Europe. "They have played a central role in the surf against Saudi Arabia in recent months because they were working in unprecedented ways. If they were silent, the international community would have forgotten it.

The Shura Council, a consultative body appointed by the King and acting as a quasi-parliament, warned in 2016 that more than one million Saudi citizens are permanently living abroad and asked the government to "investigate this phenomenon and its causes before it becomes a security threat." or a social dilemma, "according to local media.

Agnes Callamard, UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions, released a report last month asking for an investigation into the Crown Prince, as there was "credible evidence" that he and other senior officials were responsible for killing Khashoggi. Saudi Arabia rejected the report, saying it was based on "prejudices and prefabricated ideas".

Eman Alhussein, a visiting scholar at the European Council for External Relations, said the economic and social changes that have taken place from top to bottom in Saudi Arabia have helped to create a deep polarization and have pushed some people away, even if their reasons are not clear. were not purely and simply. policy.

"The climate of apprehension and uncertainty resulting from the radical changes introduced so far could benefit from a greater margin of debate. This would allow diversity of points of view to develop, "said Ms. Alhussein. "If a common ground is favored, things will be more contained in the interior of the country."