Rights group: UAE deports activist to Thailand in widening crackdown on dissent
Source: Associated Press
The United Arab Emirates deported an online activist to Thailand on Monday after stripping him of his right to live in the country, part of a widening crackdown on alleged challenges to the state since the Arab Spring uprisings, a rights group said.
The deportee did not have any reported connection to Thailand, but was a member of one of a number of families who have lived for generations in the Emirates who have never been given full citizenship.
His expulsion followed a separate wave of detentions this week of at least seven people suspected of plotting against the ruling system in the Western-allied Emirates, which has stepped up pressures on perceived dissent since the political upheavals across the region began last year.
The UAE is a key Western military foothold in the Gulf, including a base for U.S. warplanes, and this week sharply boosted its oil-exporting capabilities with a pipeline that bypasses the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Gulf - which Iran has threatened to block in retaliation for tighter Western sanctions.
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