Sri Lankan workers on hunger strike in Missan

MISSAN / IraqiNews.com: The head of the Health and Environment Commission in Missan‘s Provincial Council said that a group of Sri Lankan workers initiated a hunger strike to demand their payments, which have been delayed for the last two years. Maitham Lafta al-Fartousi told IraqiNews.com that the workers had made a similar attempt two months prior, threatening mass suicide by hanging themselves, but the interference of the Iraqi army stopped this attempt. Fartousi called upon the Iraqi government and State Ministry for Marshes Affairs to press the contracting company to pay their salaries and facilitate their departure to Sri Lanka. The province withdrew the work from the contracting company and put it in an international bid to complete the project to build 3000 housing units in Khair area, 65 km south of Amara city. Amara city, center of Misan province, lies 390 km south of the capital, Baghdad. RM (TS)/SR 529