Making things personal helps people identify with them. I want to share the story of one of my friends to let you see the way some Egyptian workers live in our good country, and to seek your help.

Mamdouh was a college student in Egypt. He reached the third year of his BA but was caught cheating and was consequently suspended for a year. He didn’t mind and decided it would be a good break away from school, a break that he might put to good use. He got a job at a local pharmacy and, in his own words, “lived like a king”.

It was only for a year that Mamdouh could work because later on he will go back to school, study hard, get his degree and then graduate to a welcoming land of opportunity. He might even get engaged.

The inevitable happened. Mamdouh heard about Jordan and all about the opportunities it offers Egyptian workers, he even saw a number of his friends leave to Jordan and heard about the money they can make over there. His mind was set, “I will leave to Jordan too!”.

Once he got to the Promised Land, Mamdouh was with a group of other Egyptians who were snatched into the arms of a local services company. Since they had nowhere to go, and nobody to consult with or stay with, those young men were ecstatic that they found work so soon. Work means money, and money means eating, drinking, sleeping in a good place, and some saving.

Signing a contract with that company was the best strategy to survive this new environment. Mamdouh was asked to sign a cheque of 500JD as well as the contract. When he refused, the company people told him it is just a measure to ensure he does not break the contract. When he proved to be stubborn, he was persuaded by his friends to sign just as they did. He remembered that he had nowhere to go if he didn’t have the money, so he signed the contract and the cheque.

The company then confiscated all of the Egyptians’ passports. They said this was also a measure to prevent them from escaping work and violating the contract. Now the company literally owned them.

I met Mamdouh during the period of his “indentured servitude” with this company. He came across as a very decent, ambitious, polite, and helpful young man. Being around my age, we used to talk a lot and he told me how he ended up getting verbally abused every day by his Egyptian superior. The company appointed an Egyptian man to supervise the group of Egyptian workers they had, and this man’s technique was breaking these young men’s self-esteem into subjugation. Locals worked with the company like the Egyptians, but seeing the horrible conditions of employment, they would usually leave after a day or two. Only the Egyptians remained because they had no other choice.

The situation got worse. The company reduced Mamdouh’s salary from 85 to 75JD per month. The 10JD they deducted they said were for “insurance”. Mamdouh had to find another job to pay the rent so he started working from 4 PM until 12 AM in a liquor store.

This means his day starts at 5:30 AM, and ends past midnight.

Mamdouh’s contract specifically prohibits him from visiting Egypt. It extends over one year only. Mamdouh finished his service as the contract legally dictates last month, but he cannot go home. He can go to the Egyptian Embassy in Amman and they might help him get his passport back from his employers, but he does not have 500JD to pay the company.

Mamdouh is still working two jobs, waking up at 5:30 in the morning and not resting before it’s past midnight, everyday.

Who protects Egyptian workers’ rights in this country? Does anyone even care about them? Mamdouh may be lucky because he is educated and he does not have a family to support, but most of those workers are not as educated as he is and they have families that wait for them to put food on the table. If they didn’t need the money so bad, they would not submit to the many forms of abuse they suffer in so many places and in so many forms.

Does anyone know how we can help Mamdouh?

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This entry was posted on Monday, October 16th, 2006 at 8:21 pm and is filed under Jordan, Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.