Egyptian labor force abroad subject to abuse and deprived of rights
CAIRO: For many Egyptians, working abroad seems like a golden opportunity to make good money and facilitate a better life for their families. Yet many end up making nothing and even imprisoned thousands of miles away from their homeland. The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) has recently issued a new report entitled: Rights lost between domestic and abroad. This report, the third in a series of reports issued over the past decade, reveals the deteriorating conditions the Egyptian labor force faces abroad.
The deteriorating economic situation in Egypt, combined with low standards of living and increasing unemployment rates have fueled the phenomenon of Egyptians working abroad and emigration. This trend, according to the EOHR report, started in the beginning of the 1970s.
The EOHR report includes three main sections. The first section tackles the legal framework regulating the rights of Egyptians abroad as per the Constitution of 1971 and Law 111/1983 – Law of Immigration and Egyptians Abroad.
Section two talks about Egyptians abroad in Arab and non-Arab countries and the violations they face, especially those that fall under the kafeel (native supervisor) system, which violates many international human rights agreements. These workers are also subject to other violations such as arbitrary firing, persecution, torture, murder, illegal detention and maltreatment. The third section highlights real cases of violations against Egyptians abroad monitored by the EOHR.
Tarek Zaghloul, head of the fieldwork unit at EOHR, says, We always receive cases requesting EOHR interference. And when cases are many, it becomes a phenomenon. Upon receiving somebody s complaint, the organization addresses the concerned authorities as well as human rights organizations in the country to figure out means of solving the problem.
Many Egyptian citizens are now imprisoned in Arab and foreign countries. According to the EOHR report, these citizens are being inhumanely treated, but Egyptian embassies ignore them and do not seek official channels to grant their rights.
Ihab Salah Eddin Mohamed is an Egyptian who traveled to work in Saudi Arabia as a salesman. He disagreed with his boss and kafeel over his commission. Mohamed filed a lawsuit against his boss. However, the documents pertinent to the case disappeared and no legal action was taken in the matter. In contrast, the kafeel filed a complaint against Mohamed and Mohamed was arrested and sentenced to a single year in a prison south of Dammam, although the sentence is lasting longer.
My son traveled to make a living and has ended up in a Saudi cell for more than two years now, laments Mohamed s distressed father. And although the year has already passed, nobody knows when he will be released.
My brother Abdel-Monem Abdel-Aziz traveled in 1981 to France to work as a cook. In 2003, he fell ill with a liver disease and was hospitalized. He visited Egypt in 2003 to complete his treatment but he died. The French embassy refused to allow any of his family members to travel and get his due payments, says Salah Abdel Aziz.
The official numbers of Egyptians in Iraq are contradictory. Based on statistics of the Minister of Manpower and Immigration, there are about 20,000 Egyptian workers in Iraq. On the other hand, the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics says a more accurate figure is 65,000. Egyptian’s financial dues in Iraq have reached over $1 billion, dating back to before the American invasion of Iraq.
Thousands of Egyptians are not listed in United Nations compensations lists and they have been seeking their rights for years now, describes Zaghloul.
Ahmed Saleh Farag is an Egyptian who traveled to Iraq in 1984 where he worked as an electrician, married an Iraqi woman and had children. When the American war on Iraq started, I took my family to Egypt, running from an inevitable death. Till today I have received nothing to make up to me the financial and psychological damages we faced, he says.
The report ends with recommendations including: abolishing the kafeel system in Gulf countries; calling upon the Arab League to draft a treaty that protects the rights of immigrants and their families; and drafting bilateral or multilateral treaties between states of origin and destination states that guarantee worker protection and ban mass-firing.
The Egyptian foreign ministry needs to further activate its role in such incidents, concludes Zaghloul.
