Qatar blockade taking toll on ordinary citizens: Amnesty

Families are being torn apart by the rift between Qatar and some other Gulf Arab states that began six months ago, Amnesty International said on Thursday, in spite of measures to ease the impact of the crisis on ordinary citizens.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, along with Egypt, imposed travel, economic and diplomatic sanctions on Qatar in June over allegations of supporting terrorism. Doha denies the charge.

Amnesty called the sanctions "arbitrary".

The human rights group, citing interviews with individuals and Qatari officials, said thousands of people had been affected by the rift, which has split families, raised food prices for foreign workers and made visits to Islamic holy sites in Saudi Arabia more difficult.

The three US-allied countries had announced measures in June to ease the impact of the dispute on mixed families, including setting up hotlines to deal with humanitarian issues.

Saudi Arabia has also said it was allowing visits to holy sites and opened its doors to Muslims in Qatar to perform the annual Muslim haj pilgrimage.

Still, only a few dozen Qatari nationals were able to travel to Saudi Arabia for haj this year, according to Qatar's state-linked National Human Rights Committee (NHRC), compared with 12,000 in 2016.

Diplomatic efforts led by Kuwait to resolve the dispute have so far failed to achieve a breakthrough.

The report was based on interviews with 44 affected individuals and conducted in late November in Qatar, as well as on meetings with Qatari officials.