CAIRO: The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) issued a press release sharply criticizing the government's lack of effort in protecting the rights of Egyptian living abroad. The press release came in response to the recent arrest and torture of two Egyptian citizens living in Kuwait, but also mentioned 38 other instances of abuse that have been reported in 2007 alone. The report stated that the Operations Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and its embassies and consulates abroad are passive and sometimes completely inactive when their help is sought by Egyptians living in foreign countries. It argued that the Ministry is only concerned about avoiding political or diplomatic debacles with other governments, and does no more than pass on complaints to local authorities without following up or investigating. It also noted that these local authorities are often the bodies responsible for depriving individuals of their human rights in the first place. Secretary-General of EOHR Hafez Abu Seada told Daily News Egypt that many instances of human rights abuse occur in Gulf countries, but that the Egyptian Foreign Ministry has done nothing to stop them. He said that of the 38 instances sited in the report, "not all are about torture - although many are. Some are about more minor abuses, many of which take place in the Gulf. He said that in these countries it is common for Egyptians or other foreigners to have their salaries or wages cut arbitrarily and there is no way for them to legally fight these injustices. "Many of them end up in prison for no reason whatsoever, he continued. "There is no one to protect them, and when they get arrested they have no way to appeal their cases. The report specifically criticized foreign embassies and consulates for not providing counseling services, legal and judicial advice, or defense attorneys for Egyptians being held in foreign prisons or being tried in foreign courts. "The Ministry has all kinds of excuses that it uses when we send it notices of human rights abuses, Seada said. "They say that if the individual broke the law that it isn't the Ministry's job to intervene. They say the person needs to find their own lawyer. They say the person must come back to Egypt before the Ministry can help him make a case against the foreign government. They say all kinds of things. The press release claimed that the Ministry had only responded to eight of the 38 incidences reported to the EOHR in 2007. Seada said that the report was released specifically because of the lack of action on the part of the Egyptian Embassy in Kuwait to come to the aid of two Egyptian workers that have been held and tortured in a Kuwaiti prison. "Even now, no one from the Embassy in Kuwait has visited them, he exclaimed. "One of the Egyptian ambassadors has said that they have no right to intervene. This is completely wrong. The Ministry is supposed to protect the rights of its citizens abroad. However, reports from Kuwait said that the Egyptian Embassy had provided the money needed to bail one of the Egyptians out of prison. According to Hassan Selim, the brother of Hossam Selim who is still being held by Kuwaiti authorities, Egyptian officials paid 200 Dinars to bail Gamal Abdel Shafy out of prison yesterday. When asked about this, Tarik Zaghloul, the head of the fieldwork unit at the EOHR that put together the press release, told Daily News Egypt that the Ministry had only taken action in response to expressions of outrage from citizens and local organizations like the EOHR. He said that until yesterday, the Embassy had done nothing to help the two individuals. Spokesmen and members of the Foreign Ministry also denied the report's accusations at a more general level, saying that the Ministry always tried its hardest to protect the rights of citizens. Fathy El-Shazli, the assistant foreign minister for European affairs, told Daily News Egypt that "this generalization is wrong. "There is a crisis right now between Egypt and Kuwait, he said. "The torture was conducted in closed rooms so that no one could know what actually happened. Even human rights organizations in Kuwait can't say what exactly went on. "The reality, he continued, "is that the Ministry is trying to take care of citizens abroad but there is a problem with the resources that are available to do this. I remember when I was the Egyptian Ambassador for Saudi Arabia there were about 34,000 citizens for every employee at the embassy. But in spite of this we would always give priority to the citizens and their rights.
