Director of the Alkarama Foundation's Legal Department, Rachid Mesli said "This detention is not the first of its kind which this family has been subjected to since their enforced deportation from Saudi Arabia in 2007." Mr. Mesli regarded the mistreatment of Mr. Al-Haddad in Yemen since that date as gross violation of their rights according to International Law including the 1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, ratified by Yemen in 1980.

Mr. Mesli urged the Yemeni authorities to halt the continued mistreatment of Mr. Al-Haddad and his family, to carry out an investigation into previous violations and to guarantee their full rights as stated in the Universal Declaration of Human rights.

The Al-Haddads ordeal goes back to 2007 when the Saudi authorities confiscated their residency papers and forcibly deported them after a dispute between Mr. Al-Haddad, who was born in Tai'f, and a Saudi prince for whom Mr. Al-Haddad worked for several years. The Al-Haddad family blames the Saudi authorities for the mistreatment they have been subjected to since they arrived in Yemen.

The family says they hold British passports which were confiscated by the Yemeni authorities and that Mr. Al-Haddad suffers from health problems which they fear could worsen in prison. Both father and son are being detained despite orders from the Yemeni General Prosecutor and the Central Prison Prosecution to release him. This reaffirms their unlawful detention and that keeping them behind bars is a dangerous indication to the absence of a political will on the part of the Yemeni government to improve the human rights situation in the country.

In August 2011, the whole family was arrested on charges of illegal residence in Yemen. In October of the same year they were informed by a security official that they have to leave the country and were to be deported to the United Kingdom. They were taken by security personal to the Airport, but were never allowed to fly instead being subjected to beatings from the Airport security. It was a this time that their passports were confiscated.

As a consequence they returned from San'a Airport homeless, with nowhere to go. They set up a small tent outside the United Nations refugee Agency offices (UNHCR) in San'a near the Yemeni Ministry of Human Rights. There, they raised protest signs denouncing the Saudi Government. Alkarama's representative in Yemen visited the Al-Haddad family, in a bid to advocate their cause on the local level, and found them living in desperate condition. At the same time, the UN refugee agency started contacting a number of government agencies regarding this issue, as Mr. Al-Haddad is registered with the UNHCR.