Insulting Egyptians abroad: Interests for Egyptian authorities precedes dignity

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How long will the insult of Egyptians abroad in general and the Gulf, in particular, continue, and what after the anger on the social media websites? and what will the statements of politicians and media outlets benefit without being followed by real moves? These and other questions exploded on social media in Egypt, after circulating an insulting video clip, for a Kuwaiti slapping an Egyptian on his face 3 times. This incident came after about two months of what happened in Saudi when the security forces dragged an Egyptian on the ground, after expressing his opinion of supporting protesting to demand Egyptian authorities to return the Egyptians who stuck abroad due to Coronavirus.

Activists on social media, called on the Egyptian state to respond forcefully to the ongoing attacks on its citizens abroad, with deeds and not only with words, and to carry out its responsibility, otherwise, it is a shame. The researcher, Amer Abdel-Moneim, says that the file of Egyptians abroad deserves treatment worthy of its importance, and is not left to a minister who does not have any vision, and is waiting to work under higher directives, or a limited-capacity employee uninterested in the topic. Abdel-Moneim stressed on the vital role that more than 10 million Egyptians play in Economic support.

According to official data, Egyptians’ remittances abroad reached about 26.8 billion dollars last year, an increase of 5% over the year 2018 in which remittances reached 25.5 billion dollars. Tariq Amer, the governor of the Central Bank (government), had stated that the real number of Egyptians’ total transfers exceeds the official figure announced, and that it may reach 34 billion USD, because the Egyptians carry with them “cash money” during their return. “When we speak about the economic importance of the file, this is in order to convince the utilitarian materialists who are not aware of the seriousness of negative messages issued in the recent period that did not take into account the feelings of insulting the Egyptians,” Abdel-Moneim says.

The new incident is not far from the suffering that has been going on for months, for the thousands of Egyptians stranded in the Gulf states, after they were discharged from their jobs in light of the COVID 19 pandemic.

Observers say that the conditions of the Egyptians working in the Gulf states is known as the increasing difficulties of living for them since the beginning of the “Coronavirus” spread in those countries, where hundreds of them are being demobilized, while others find themselves besieged by the forced stay as a result of the stop of flights. This results in his acceptance of inhumane working conditions, negligible wages, and harsh living conditions, in narrow and unhealthy rooms.

Unfortunately, most of these people are unable to return to their homeland, and at the same time they do not find safe refuge in the societies they have traveled to, and they hold the Egyptian state responsible for their inhumane situation. It is noteworthy that during the past few years, dozens of Egyptians abroad were subjected to numerous violations, as the Egyptians became everywhere subjected to physical and verbal assaults, in light of the government’s failure and limiting its measures on issuing statements or demands for investigations, without taking real measures on the ground.

Successive accidents

The young man Walid Hamdi was run over in Saudi Arabia by four people, who then mutilated his body on the main road, and “Khaled Othman”, in a restaurant in Jordan, was beaten by a brother of a member of Parliament. In Libya, an Egyptian worker in a clothing store was killed when he refused to return goods to one of the customers, where a verbal dispute broke out between them, which evolved to the client shooting at the Egyptian. In conjunction with that, the Kuwaiti police officers assaulted an Egyptian, because he went to the police department to report a traffic accident. In Sudan, 4 Egyptian workers were beaten by the police with electric wires, during a quarrel between Egyptian and Sudanese workers, at a time when an Egyptian worker in Greece was tortured and beaten by the owner of the store, who seized him in one of the properties before he was tied in a tree for a day.

The former ambassador of the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and international relations expert, Baher Al-Duwaini, said that the reason for the recurrence of these incidents is the weakening of the official response from the government in several incidents, which leads to more violations, in light of the conviction of citizens and systems of other countries that the Egyptian regime will not defend its citizens, and that he does not care about their lost dignity at home before abroad. He adds that the states deal with the citizens of other countries according to several rules, including reciprocity, including the power of the states themselves, whether economically or politically or in terms of defending their citizens, which are not compatible with the Egyptian case. He added, “Egypt cannot take confrontational stances against any other government in order to preserve the dignity of its citizens, as a result of common interests that exceed the importance of the dignity of the Egyptians.”