Monday, April 30, 2012

Egyptian workers & Lebanese police clash at embassy in Beirut, 16 arrested

NOW Lebanon
Eight ISF members wounded during protest in front of Egyptian mission
 
April 28, 2012
 
MTV television station on Saturday reported that eight ISF members were wounded after a number of Egyptian workers, who were protesting in front of Egypt’s mission in Beirut, hurled stones at them.
 
The TV station said the ISF members suffered head and chest injuries, adding that two Egyptians were also wounded.

According to the report, all the injured people were transported to a hospital and the Internal Security Forces (ISF) arrested ten people involved in attacking the ISF personnel.

However, MTV did not explain why the workers were protesting.

In turn, the National News Agency (NNA) explained that twenty young Egyptian men, among them ten people covering themselves with blankets painted red, congregated on Saturday in front of the Labor Ministry in the Beirut area of Chiyyah and later headed to the Egyptian embassy.

The men were carrying a banner that read: “The sponsorship system kills one worker every day.”

The “sponsorship system” in Lebanon is comprised of various customary practices, administrative regulations, and legal requirements that tie a migrant domestic worker’s residence permit to one specific sponsor in the country. Migrant domestic workers are excluded from Lebanese labor laws, denied freedom of association, and are not guaranteed freedom of movement.

The NNA said the number of protesters later reached 60 and they tried to cross the barbed wire fence which the ISF had placed in the vicinity of the Egyptian  embassy “as a precautionary measure.” 
The report added that some protesters hurled stones at the ISF members and the embassy’s building, prompting security forces to arrest six of them.

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