Let this mom go!

THE mysterious case of Dr Aafia Siddiqui, a US-educated neuroscientist who worked for several years with the hallowed Massachusetts Institute of Technology at Bostono, is perhaps the most bizarre ever to emerge from Bush’s war on terror. The 36-year old mom went missing with her three kids five years ago as she was visiting her parents in Karachi. And now the US officials claim Siddiqui was captured by the Afghan authorities outside the provincial governor’s compound in the city of Ghazni on July 17 in “suspicious circumstances”. And subsequently, we are told, Siddiqui attacked a team of US soldiers and FBI officials with a rifle conveniently placed next to her at the Afghan police station where she was being held. As cock-and-bull stories go, this must take the cake! The Afghan and US officials peddling this incredible yarn could have at least employed more imagination and ingenuity. How do they expect the world, and people of Pakistan, to buy this bunkum? If Dr Siddiqui is indeed an Al Qaeda terrorist and has links to the top leadership of the outfit, why hadn’t she been presented before a court of law all this while? And where had she been all these years while her family had been desperately looking for her, constantly pleading with the Pakistani authorities?
And how did she turn up in distant Ghazni in Afghanistan while she was supposed to be visiting her parents in Karachi? Also, where are her three young children? Have they joined Al Qaeda ranks too? We wouldn’t be surprised if they have been consigned to the big hellhole called the Guantanamo Bay, that is, if they are alive which hardly looks likely now. Or who knows, they might even turn up in the same mysterious fashion as their distraught mom did planning a suicide mission somewhere in Afghanistan. There are so many holes in this tale that the Air Force One could pass through them. The case of Dr Siddiqui is yet another example how in their zeal to fight terror, the US authorities are not only undermining the democratic ideals and values that inspired America’s founding fathers but they are also trampling on everything that the world has come to view as sacrosanct, from the rule of law to human rights to fair trial. If the US and Afghan authorities have betrayed a shockingly callous attitude to human rights and the rule of law in this case, the Pakistani authorities are guilty of not doing enough to protect their vulnerable citizens like Dr Siddiqui, even after her case came to light. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan says Dr Siddiqui’s case is only a tip of the iceberg. It argues there are hundreds of such innocents in US detention in Bagram airbase in Afghanistan and the Guantanamo Bay. It is time to let them all go, Mr Bush, including Dr Aafia Siddiqui.
 

Grievances of expat workers

THE Gulf states need expatriate workers. Yet as recent tensions in Kuwait demonstrate, that need is not always reflected in the decent and honorable treatment the workers deserve, either on contractual or moral grounds. Reportedly, 1,000 Bangladeshis have been deported from Kuwait after protests about wages and conditions by cleaners turned violent. Similar things have happened in other Gulf countries. Similar complaints have been raised against them. It is not just that expatriate workers only complain of lower-than-promised salaries that then are often unpaid for months. Some also assert they are poorly, sometimes violently, treated by their employers, while housemaids regularly protest at sexual advances and being kept as virtual prisoners in a modern form of slavery. Though angered by the violence of the demonstrations, the Kuwaiti authorities have clearly been stung by the angry claims of the demonstrators. A draft law is to be presented to Parliament that may impose minimum wage conditions — certainly for expatriate workers hired by the government and its agencies. It is also thought the legislation will make it a criminal offense, punishable by up to 15 years imprisonment for anyone to resort to violence against, or sexual harassment of, their workers. Kuwait also appears to have been influenced by international public opinion, not least in countries such as the Philippines and Bangladesh that are major suppliers of expatriate labor. There is a real danger that even though salaries in the Gulf may be highly attractive when compared with the highest pay that might be earned in the expatriates’ home countries, if the work offered is unpleasant, dangerous or humiliating and worse, is not properly remunerated, then the supply of workers upon which the region relies so heavily will begin to dry up.
This is not to say that there are not many excellent employers in the Gulf who offer decent working conditions and who pay reasonable salaries on time. The problem is that this is only what is expected, what is normal and what is guaranteed and enforced by law the world over and thus makes no headlines. It is the unscrupulous or careless employers whose negligent or malign treatment of their employees hits the headlines, simply because such a thing is not supposed to happen in any decent society. There is, however, a further dark element to the plight of exploited foreign workers in the Gulf, which may not always be apparent to the authorities in the region. The process of hiring overseas labor is all too often farmed out to recruiting agencies in supplier countries. Some of these agencies are excellent but a significant number are a disgrace. They dupe locals by promising them salaries far in excess of what the people will really be paid. Worse, they also charge the would-be workers huge sums of money in order to guarantee them a job. By the time workers arrive in the Gulf and discover the reality, which may even include having to pay for their accommodation, it is too late. Clearly if Gulf countries would regulate and, just as important, monitor carefully the overseas agencies that recruit their workers, a large part of the trickery and heartache could be ended. The crooks need to be put out of business rather than being allowed to continue because of official inaction.

—Arab News