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Mozambique: Workers accuse Saudi Embassy of abuses – AIM report
7:54 CAT | 17 Jun 2020
Maputo view. [Photo: Macauhub]
Mozambican staff working at the Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Maputo say they have been subjected to abuses which they compare to “slavery”.
The workers brought their complaints to the independent newssheet “Carta de Mocambique”. They said that, since the arrival of Saudi Ambassador Abdulmalek Ayosfi in 2018, conditions had deteriorated, and now they are required to work every weekend without overtime pay.
They accuse the ambassador of racism because he only grants leave to Saudi members of staff and not to Mozambicans. The Saudi staff members, they add, are given 30 days annual holidays, but the Mozambicans only receive 15 days.
Workers are not allowed time off for illness, because the Embassy does not recognise Mozambican medical certificates, alleging that they are forged.
The workers added that they have not received a pay rise since 2018, and say that five Mozambican workers were expelled from the Embassy without any compensation.
To cope with the Covid-19 pandemic, the Embassy obliges its Mozambican staff to wear masks, but the Saudis do not wear them. The group told “Carta de Mocambique” that the ambassador justified this discrimination on the grounds that Mozambicans might transmit the coronavirus because they come to work on public transport.
“Carta de Mocambique” tried to obtain a response from the Embassy to these allegations. It says it sent a reporter to the Embassy on four consecutive days, but without success. Then on Friday the Embassy contacted the paper to say it would not receive any “Carta de Mocambique” reporter.
The spokesperson for the Mozambican Foreign Ministry, Geraldo Saranga, said the Ministry has not yet received any complaint from this group of workers. He said the doors of the Foreign Ministry are always open for the Mozambican embassy staff to present their concerns.
The Labour Ministry, through the General Inspectorate of Labour, also said they had no knowledge of the case.
Source: AIM
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