The Euro-Mediterranean Observatory for Human Rights has urged the Saudi authorities to immediately disclose the fate of dozens of Palestinians who have been subjected to enforced disappearance and release them, unless they are immediately charged with an offense.
The Geneva-based Euro-Mediterranean Observatory said it could not give an exact figure for the number of Palestinian detainees, but it had obtained the names of about 60 people, while estimates within the Palestinian community in Saudi Arabia put the number far higher.
He added that he was able to document the testimonies of 11 Palestinian families whose children have been arrested or forcibly disappeared in recent months during their stay or visit to Saudi Arabia.
He explained that they were isolated from the outside world without specific indictments or presented to the competent authority, and were not allowed to contact their relatives or communicate with their lawyers.
"The campaign of arrests targeting the Palestinians is a link in a long series of violations that add to the kingdom's horrific human rights record," said Celine Information and Communication Officer at the Euro-Mediterranean Observatory Celine.
A detainee with Algerian nationality - recently released - revealed to the Euro-Mediterranean Observatory some of the practices, violations and methods of torture suffered by detainees - especially Palestinians - interrogators and jailers in the Saudi prison "Thahban".
The former detainee, who left Saudi Arabia last week, said that "the jailers were depriving detainees from sleeping or obtaining any medical treatment, although some of them are elderly and need special care."
He added that the food inside the prison was degrading and sometimes in bags, and that the jailers kept the detainees handcuffed even inside the prison cells.
The International Observatory for Human Rights pointed out that the family of a Palestinian engineer lost contact with her son early last month, while reviewing the Passports Department in the Saudi capital Riyadh.
According to the family's statement, she and her son's friends, who work for a Saudi company, were prevented from inquiring about his fate or place of detention.
"What hurts me most is that I don't know anything about my husband; he is alive, dead or tortured," his wife said. "This has aggravated the pain of my children as well as his parents, brothers and sisters."
Another Palestinian family who lost contact with her son spoke in July and has since known nothing about him, despite repeated appeals to the authorities to disclose his fate or whereabouts.
According to the family, her son is a former prisoner in Israeli prisons, forcibly deported to Jordan, where he completed his university education and married there, and then moved to work in a company in Saudi Arabia.
The Saudi authorities arrested a 60-year-old Palestinian businessman, who has been living in Jeddah for decades, in July.
The International Observatory quoted one of his sons as saying that the authorities confiscated his money and threatened family members, and prevented them from leaving Saudi Arabia for fear of exposing the arrest of their father.
The International Observatory for Human Rights said it also monitored detentions of pilgrims of Palestinian origin, who hold Arab nationalities during their Hajj pilgrimage this year, but their families remain silent on the conditions of their detention in the hope of ending the nightmare of forced disappearance and return to normal life.