Egypt Independent
Mon, 25/03/2013
Jano Charbel
The Association of Egyptian Doctors in Riyadh (AEDR)
was officially established on 21 March 2013, making it the first such
entity to service tens of thousands of Egyptian doctors in Saudi
Arabia’s nearly non-existent civil society.
The origins of this association date back to 2005. Yet
since its initial foundation, and even before, tens of Egyptian doctors
are reported to have been imprisoned — often without clear charges — and
have reportedly been abused in detention.
Furthermore, Egyptian doctors employed in Saudi Arabia have
reported a number of other grievances associated with contractual,
legal and financial violations.
Established under the aegis of the Foreign Affairs
Committee of the Doctors Syndicate, the AEDR is not itself a
professional syndicate, as no syndicates or labor unions exist in the
ultra-conservative kingdom.
The basic framework for the AEDR was established in the
presence of 65 doctors at the Egyptian Consulate in Riyadh on 30
December 2005. The association was officially inaugurated on Thursday,
and its first general assembly conference was held at a five-star hotel
the following day.
According to the AEDR's Facebook page,
the association currently has a registered membership of over 1,000
Egyptian doctors in Saudi Arabia.
Its aims include promoting the
professional standards of physicians; increasing coordination between
Egyptian doctors and consular staff in Riyadh; improving communications
between the association and the Doctors Syndicate in Egypt; assistance
in resolving doctors’ professional problems; assisting members in
finding job opportunities; organizing social and recreational
activities, and organizing programs for doctors’ children.
“This association is meant to protect the rights and
freedoms of all Egyptian doctors working in Saudi Arabia,” says Dr.
Khairy Abdel-Dayyem, chairman of the Doctors Syndicate and a member of
the Muslim Brotherhood.
One of the more important objectives is to provide up-to-date medical training programs and seminars for its members, he adds.
Abdel-Dayyem says that an estimated 50,000 Egyptian doctors
work in the Gulf, mostly concentrated in Saudi Arabia. He could not
provide exact figures of Egyptian doctors in Riyadh or Saudi Arabia as a
whole, however.
Dr. Amr al-Shoura, media coordinator for Doctors Without
Rights — an Egyptian protest movement — explained that while the AEDR is
the first such entity to be established in the Gulf, there are similar
associations for Egyptian doctors in Paris, London and Tripoli.
Egyptian doctors have a sour history in Saudi Arabia,
experiencing unwarranted arrests, imprisonment, lack of due-process,
physical abuse, corporal punishment and even torture. These grievances
have led several Egyptian doctors to embark on hunger strikes in prisons
and jails across the kingdom in the past.
Both Shoura and Abdel-Dayyem agree another chief problem
facing Egyptian doctors in Saudi Arabia, and in Arab Gulf countries in
general, is the kafeel (a sponsorship system of
employment), whereby every foreign employee is strictly supervised by a
native sponsor and cannot travel domestically or abroad without their
consent.
The Doctors Syndicate
in Egypt recently released a report indicating that the last five
imprisoned Egyptian doctors were released from detention in Saudi Arabia
earlier this year.
The syndicate, which is dominated by members of the ruling
Muslim Brotherhood, has issued statements indicating that these
“wrongfully imprisoned doctors” were released in light of a royal
amnesty, which was issued after President Mohamed Morsy recently visited
the kingdom.
While there, Morsy reportedly presented Saudi authorities
with a list of these “wrongfully detained” Egyptian physicians, some of
whom had been languishing for years in prison without due process.
These exculpations have also been attributed to pressure
applied by members of the Doctors Syndicate who staged numerous protests
outside the Saudi Embassy in Giza.
Commenting on the arrests of Egyptian doctors, along with
other professionals allegedly affiliated with the Brotherhood in
December 2012, Shoura went on to add that “there was a swift and
immediate response from the syndicate when it discovered that the
detained Egyptian doctors in the United Arab Emirates were Brotherhood
members."
"The speed and effort exerted to campaign for the release
of these imprisoned Brotherhood doctors in the Emirates was
unprecedented," he says.
Shoura argues this is a result of the so-called
"Brotherhoodization" of the syndicate, which effectively caters to the
Brotherhood-dominated board's s demands and ignores other more universal
demands, such as an increase in the national health budget.
Abdel-Dayyem insists that “the Association of Egyptian
Doctors in Riyadh, like the Doctors’ Syndicate, is a non-partisan and
non-politicized professional association which works for the interests
of all its members, regardless of their affiliations.”
Abdel-Dayyem declined to mention whether this association was appointed or elected.
However, Shoura stresses, “We have few details and little
understanding about the Association of Egyptian Doctors in Riyadh. This
is because the Brotherhood, with their near monopoly in the syndicate,
has kept others in the dark regarding information relating to the
establishment of such overseas organizations.”
“The Brotherhood refuses to establish any such association
if it isn't under their direct control. This has paved the way for the
further politicization of associations abroad," Shoura stresses.
Repeated attempts to contact members of the AEDR have proven unsuccessful.
*Photo by Namir Galal
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