Somali minister of justice implicated in gross rights abuses, acting as an agent for FAVORI

[Deeq A.]

Somali workers in Mogadishu international airport are protesting against Minister of Justice Abdulkadir Mohamed Nur for justifying egregious human rights abuses by FAVORI LLC against its workers.

“We tried to end the ongoing labour dispute peacefully but the management of FAVORI refused to respect our labour rights and listen to our demands based on national and international laws. But It is abhorrent to see Justice Minister coming for their aid in breach of Somali laws” said one Favori worker. “It’s obvious Minster of justice has been compromised and preferred personal benefits against the basic rights of Somali citizens”.

“When there are fully enforced trade unions rights in Turkey, FAVORI chose to deny Somali workers their trade unions’ rights as if this is not a country with laws. If FAVORI would have employed us in Turkey, we would get our rights in full but here they see government officials that they can easily corrupt” added another worker who does not want to be named in fear of reprisals.

The workers, who have been protesting against labour rights violations, vowed to continue their protest until their rights were respected and demands met. These include the right to belong to a trade union organisation, fair labour relations, amending employment contract, payment of salary arrears, and ending discrimination & harassment.

“Minister Abdulkadir Mohamed Nur is an agent of FAVORI and operates as someone hired to curtail workers rights while using his government title. Was he appointed by the Prime Minister to abuse citizens’ rights” asked another worker?

The workers signed a document detailing the abuses inflicted on them by FAVORI, including “unlawful dismissal, verbal insults, threats of reprisals, salary cuts, discrimination and forcing them to sign illegal documents”.

The crisis between FAVORI and its workers has taken a new turn and is now implicating government officials.

Workers’ umbrella body FESTU has already submitted a complaint to the International Labour Organisation over these abuses, dragging both Somali government and FAVORI to UN labour body.

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