Human Rights Ministry investigates conditions of Sri-Lankan workers in Missan

MISSAN / IraqiNews.com: Iraq’s Human Rights Ministry has formed a special committee to investigate the conditions of Sri-Lankan workers in a Lebanese company in southern Iraq’s Amara city, the Ministry’s Director-General in Southern Iraq’s Provinces said on Saturday.   “The Human Rights Ministry has formed a special committee to investigate the conditions of the Sri-Lankan workers. Some of the workers attempted suicide, while others announced a hunger strike, both due to non-payment of their wages for 18 months from the Lebanese Talaat Husamiddin Company for Building of Rural Housing Complexes in al-Kheir village, 65 km to the south of Amara,” Ahmed Hadi Bonnia told IraqiNews.com news agency.   Bonnia, after meeting the Village’s Mayor, a representative of the company and the Sri-Lankan workers, said he had found the workers in very poor health and psychological condition, stressing that the Ministry “has to take into consideration the human aspects, away from the race, sect or nationality of the said workers, through respect of their rights, being heads of families, waiting for them in their country.” He noted that they total 41 workers, including 30 on the company’s site and 11 at its Baghdad office.   “The committee has brough its report about the  humanitarian conditions of the Sri-Lankan workers to the Minister’s office, in order to raise their case to the Council of Ministers, so that their wages may be paid by the Iraqi government,” he added.   Amara, the center of Missan Province, is 390 km to the south of Baghdad.   SKH (TI)/SR   605