CAIRO - A Cairo-based human rights group has called on the Ministry of Interior to protect police conscripts working as orderlies from being abused by officers and their families. “Hundreds of thousands of mostly illiterate young policemen who work in officers' homes are vulnerable to forced labour, confinement and violence,” says Hafez Abu Saeda, the head of the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights. Although Interior Minister Major General Mansour el-Eissawi has pledged to make improvements for policemen, the reforms do not stretch to the orderlies, who should return to their barracks and be treated like soldiers, not housemaids. "There has been a big change in the sense that Minister el-Eissawi has recognised there is a problem," Abu Saeda says. "But, while he is introducing reforms, he has overlooked the police orderlies.” These orderlies, employed in the officers' private homes, often work long hours everyday, forcibly confined and physically abused by the officers' wives and children. "Once these young men are drafted to serve for three years in the riot police camps, the officers have full control of their lives under what is known as the 'orderly system'. “These soldiers, who should be serving the nation, serve senior officers instead, cleaning their homes and offices and performing tasks for their families. “The Law and the Ministry's rigid rules are mainly to blame for the abuse, leaving these young conscripts trapped, since they are not allowed to legally change their officers, or demand that they be returned to their barracks,” he adds. Abu Saeda wants this lowly post to be immediately abolished, because it is a stark violation of basic human and labour rights that are protected by the Constitution. "The Minister will have to think creatively how to help the soldiers working in a unique environment – the officers' private homes," he adds. Ahmed Ouda, a senior member of the opposition Al-Wafd Party, says that he has received numerous complaints from these police orderlies demanding they be returned to their camps to escape the bad treatment from their officers, that includes isolation and difficult working conditions. "These conscripts, who are illegally used as domestic labourers, are not protected by the Ministry's laws," adds Ouda, a member of Al-Wafd'a Supreme Authority. He urges Minister el-Eissawi to abolish this 'hated system' and ensure that these orderlies go back to their barracks to serve the nation rather than their officers. Many orderlies have accused their superior officers of beating them for the slightest mistake, or refusing to give them regular holidays, as specified in the Ministry's laws and regulations.
