CAIRO: A draft law drawn up by the Public Agency for the Welfare of Egyptians Abroad will be presented during the upcoming parliamentary session, assistant foreign minister for consular affairs Ahmed Rizq told MENA news agency Friday. "Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit recently held a meeting aimed at working towards drawing up a draft law by the Public Agency in order to provide the means necessary to solve the problems of Egyptians abroad, Rizq is quoted as telling reporters. The assistant minister added that Egypt's consular activity has recently witnessed "a noticeable and significant evolution in the foreign ministry's role in looking after the interests of Egyptians abroad. Egyptian rights groups are critical of the failure of Egyptian consular authorities to adequately protect the rights of the millions of Egyptians working abroad, particularly those employed in the Gulf under the 'kafala' or grantor system, which gives employers the right to confiscate workers' passports and cancel residence rights. There was widespread criticism last year, of the sentences handed down to two Egyptian doctors working in Saudi Arabia. The two men, Raouf Amin Al-Araby and Shawky Abd-Rabbo were sentenced to imprisonment and lashing. The media accused the Egyptian government of not doing enough in the case. Egyptian authorities subsequently responded by halting doctor visas to Saudi Arabia. In April there was strong criticism over a group of Egyptian fishermen kidnapped by Somali pirates. Authorities were accused of not doing enough to free the men, who escaped their captors this month. In July 2009 the Arab Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession (ACIJLP) repeated its calls for the Egyptian president to intervene in the case of 25 Egyptian migrant workers sentenced to death in Libya. One of the men, Fadl Ismail Heteitah, was executed on July 28, 2009. ACIJLP says in a press statement that Heteitah was executed "despite the fact that the relatives of the victim agreed to receive blood money [in place of Heteitah being executed] under the Libyan Law on Conciliation and Bloody Money. "The Libyan attorney general however refused to implement the conciliation, on the basis that it had not been documented by the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs . -Daily News Egypt
