By Joseph Mayton

Cairo, Egypt

Yussif Gamal smiled widely as he watched a group of Egyptian protesters spray paint on the walls of the Saudi Arabian embassy in Cairo.

Ostensibly, the demonstration he was joining is aimed at freeing Egyptian human rights lawyer Ahmed El-Gizawi, whose arrest by Saudi authorities created a firestorm of protests and led Riyadh to recall its ambassador. But for Gamal, like many other Egyptians, there is a subtext to their anger and it is the treatment of the million or so Egyptian guest workers in Saudi Arabia.

"I think the Saudi government will have to realize the Egyptian people are no longer weak," Gamal told The Media Line. "We are ready to make this a struggle for El-Gizawi and our dignity as workers."

Some 1.7 million Egyptians work in Saudi Arabia, according to the United Nations International Labor Organization (ILO), and some estimates put the number higher. They help fill a shortage of skilled labor in the wealthy, oil-rich kingdom while alleviating unemployment back in Egypt and sending hundreds of millions of dollars to their families at home, providing critical foreign exchange.

But Egyptians, like other expatriate workers in Saudi Arabia, are subject to discrimination and abuse. Among the biggest problems is the system of sponsorship, or kafala, under which foreigners can work in the country only if they have a sponsor, who organizes contracts, salaries, visas and repatriation. Sponsors often use that control to exploit workers by taking away their passport or iqama (residence permit) or by failing to pay wages on time.

Gamal knows the reality of working in Saudi Arabia: In 2006, he left Cairo shortly after finishing his medical degree to work in a hospital in Riyadh. He was optimistic about his first professional appointment, but his mood quickly changed after his sponsor refused to allow him to return home to visit his ailing mother.

Two years later, with his mother's condition worsening, Gamal decided he would not renew his contract with the hospital. But his Saudi sponsor refused to return his passport, forcing him to stay in the country.

"That was when I sought legal help, and although I finally got my passport and was able to leave the country, I heard about this man El-Gizawi, who was helping Egyptians like me, who faced bad conditions in Saudi," Gamal says, as cheers erupted once more in front of the embassy building.

To the Saudis' misfortune, El-Gizawi's arrest has served to point up the kind of abuses Gamal suffered. El-Gizawi flew to Saudi Arabia on April 17 to take part in the umrah pilgrimage but was arrested upon arrival on charges of hiding more than 20,000 Xanax anti-anxiety pills in his luggage. Xanax is banned in the kingdom. With drug-related crimes in Saudi Arabia penalized with lengthy jail terms and possible death, El-Gizawi's situation remains tenuous and far from being solved.

Egyptian human rights activists say the charges are false and that the real reason the Saudis detained him is because El-Gizawi is a prominent figure in the fight for the rights of Egyptian guest workers in the kingdom.

El-Gizawi had recently filed a suit against the Saudi government on behalf of hundreds of Egyptian guest workers over its refusal to take action against the horrific conditions.

The protests prompted Saudi Arabia to close its embassy in Cairo and recall its ambassador, Ahmed Abdel Aziz Al-Qattan. Even though the Egyptian government - controlled by an interim military council - has sought to make amends, relations between the two countries are at their lowest since Hosni Mubarak was ousted as president 15 months ago.

Under Mubarak any signs of popular anger over Saudi treatment of Egyptian guest workers would have been suppressed. But even if public protests were discouraged, the huge numbers of Egyptians working in the kingdom ensured that stories leaked back home and fueled resentment.

One of the most well-known cases involved an Egyptian doctor accused of causing the death of a Saudi citizen while on the job in 2010. Fady Samuel Bannon Bishay's case sparked major concerns about the rights of workers in the kingdom. Bishay denied the charges, saying he was wrongfully charged by a Saudi royal, and sentenced to jail.

The Egyptian embassy in Riyadh has also faced massive criticism over its handling of the debacle, which has been seen as supporting the Saudi charges. Aside from the important role worker remittances play in the Egyptian economy, Saudi Arabia is also a major trade partner, investor and source of tourism for Egypt.

"We know they are lying and the Egyptian ambassador to Saudi is a former Mubarak-era official who has long been known to sit close with the Saudi palace," says Salem, a 28-year-old migrant worker, who asked not be identified by his full name. He told The Media Line that he had bitter experiences as a guest worker in Saudi Arabia in recent years. "They treat us like second class citizens."

Rights and activist groups in Egypt are directing their demands for the release of El-Gizawi toward their own government as much as at Riyadh. They are demanding that the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), the interim military government, step up pressure on Saudi Arabia to free El-Gizawi.

"Everyone should forget Mubarak's Egypt, we are not second class citizens and everyone should fear the new revolutionary Egypt that will preserve its people's dignity," says Engy Hamdy, member of the political office of the 6th of April movement, the opposition group leading the protests.

"It is as if Mubarak and Suleiman passed their experience in framing people to the Saudi side," Hamdy said in a statement, referring to Omar Suleiman, Mubarak's former intelligence chief.

The group has accused Saudi authorities of lying about the charges and has demanded they release the video capturing the procedures of arresting El-Gizawi. El-Gizawi's wife, who was with him when he was arrested, told Egyptian television that her husband was arrested before the luggage was searched.

Mahmoud Afifi, head of the group's media office, said last week that the country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has insulted Egyptians abroad by neglecting their rights and failing to come to the aid of El-Gizawi.

The ministry said in response to the protests that it is "tentatively" following the case and is in contact with its Saudi counterparts, but it made no mention of the drug smuggling allegations. On the other hand, the Egyptian ambassador to Saudi Arabia, lashed out at the public response in Egypt, denouncing the mass demonstrations and calling El-Gizawi a "drug smuggler."

Many Egyptians residing in Saudi Arabia attacked the ambassador through social media. One called him "a royal palace dog" and accused him of working against Egyptians, neglecting their every demand and never intervening to help.

Another who works in the Saudi commercial center of Jeddah said on Facebook that in order to get the ambassador to intervene, one must get a recommendation of a Saudi royal, as he only listens to them. Others have called for the resignation of the ambassador, who was appointed by Mubarak, accusing him of being corrupt and still loyal to the former dictatorship.

Labor activist and legal aid worker Ahmed Nobar, who has penned reports for the ILO, told The Media Line that the time has come to finally "come to an understanding that the Gulf nations and Saudi Arabia cannot use Egyptian citizens for their own purposes without facing justice in the face."

For Gamal and others who know the struggle of workers first hand, they hope that change is coming. "We want our dignity back and El-Gizawi can give that to us, and we will stay ready to fight."

 

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Saudi Arrest Lays Bare Egyptian Resentments | Global Viewpoint