Lebanon airline employee sacked for scolding ‘Filipinos’

[kok3n]

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BEIRUT—An official said Tuesday that an employee of Lebanon’s national airline MEA was fired after a passenger complained in a social media campaign that the worker humiliated travelers from the Philippines at the Beirut airport and told them over the loudspeaker, “Filipino people, stop talking.”

The incident is part of what human rights groups say is widespread discrimination and abuse of foreign workers in Lebanon. More than 200,000 women from Asia and Africa work as maids in the country of four million people, said Nadim Houry, a researcher in Lebanon for the New York-based group Human Rights Watch.

In recent years, the foreign maids’ work conditions — long hours, little pay and alleged physical abuse — have come under increasing scrutiny in Lebanon. Some private beaches in the country have barred foreign workers, and not all have complied with a Tourism Ministry directive earlier this year to halt such practices, Houry said.

He lauded the social media campaign protesting Saturday’s airport incident, calling it a sign of change.

“The latest incident shows that more and more people in Lebanon are angry and tired of this racism that exists,” Houry said, while urging the government to do more to protect foreign workers.

“What we have been missing are concrete new policies, a new enforcement mechanism to put an end to it,” he said. “It is no longer the time for nice words.”

Abed Shaheen, a Lebanese businessman based in Dubai, witnessed Saturday’s incident while waiting to board a flight at Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport. The flight was delayed and passengers, including about two dozen domestic workers from Asia, were talking among themselves, he said.

At one point, a woman staffing the counter at the gate took a loudspeaker and announced, “Filipino people, stop talking,” Shaheen said. He said the woman’s male colleague corrected her, telling her the travelers were from Nepal, not the Philippines. The woman proceeded to admonish the group twice more, giggling as she did so.

Shaheen said he was outraged and walked up to the counter to complain. He said he was brushed off by the two members of the ground staff and was told they would do as they please.

He later launched a protest campaign on Facebook and Twitter and sent an email to MEAG, an MEA subsidiary that handles ground services. Shaheen said he received a call from a senior official in MEAG and was promised the company would investigate.

On Tuesday, MEA said on its Facebook page that it investigated Saturday’s incident, which it portrayed it as an isolated case of “misbehavior” by an MEAG passenger service agent.

The airline said severe disciplinary action has been taken against an employee, but did not elaborate.

An MEA official said the woman was fired, and that disciplinary action was being considered against her male colleague. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case with the media.

Lebanon airline employee sacked for scolding

[kok3n]

Racism at Beirut International Airport


Check out this racism incident that a guy called Abed Shaheen has witnessed at Beirut International Airport yesterday and shared on Facebook.

Racism at Beirut Airport! My personal hands-on experience.

Yesterday on the 6th of October I was at gate 11 with a friend of mine waiting to board the Air Arabia flight at 20:25.

While waiting to board there was a group of foreign workers sitting with the rest of the passengers waiting for their turn. They were behaving normally as any other group of passengers would. Then sadly, the lady (looking at her uniform she apparently works for MEA Ground Services and not Air Arabia) at the gate announced on loud speaker (over the whole system covering the airport) the following: “Filipino people stop talking”; then she started giggling about it with the macho gentleman who was with her at the gate. They continued their racist behavior by announcing again “Filipino Nepal people talking not allowed here” and on and on.

Shocked, I obviously became furious and approached them and explained that this racist and discriminatory behavior is not acceptable, impolite and does not at the least reflect what employees at Beirut Airport should stand for (not to imply it’s acceptance in any other situation of course).

This unfortunately sounded like a joke to them and they went on to say “we do whatever we want and we don’t care about what you are saying”, then “management doesn’t even want this kind of people on the flight” and “even if you complain this will be thrown away and we dare you to do anything about it”. When I asked her “how would you feel if you ever wanted to travel to Europe and while queuing for your visa they told you the same thing?”, she replied “these people are different”; The macho gentleman seeing that his female friend, whom he was trying so hard to impress with his imitating giggles, was cornered with her twisted racist logic even went further to ask me to back off the counter and threatening to make a problem and to void my ticket!!

When I asked for the complaint form they answered (While still laughing of course) “take it from the flight attendants and good luck sitting next to such people on the flight” I did file an official complaint with Air Arabia and their staff was very helpful and promised to reach the message out to their management. However Air Arabia is paying MEAG for such services and they need to use their power to do greater efforts too to ensure that the people behind this are held accountable. I also sent an email today to Mr. Richard Mujais from MEAG, explaining what happened and asked him to further discuss this with me and to show us that these employees were held accountable for such racist behavior.

Until then, and as a friend suggested that they also need to be exposed please help me exposing such intolerable behavior…

What a shame…

Update:

MEA posted the following response on their Facebook page yesterday:

To our loyal customers and fans,

We are aware of the purported incident that took place on the 6th October 2012 at Beirut International Airport, and appreciate your patience while a full investigation by MEA is underway. Please rest assured that MEAs policy is not to tolerate discriminatory or racist behavior in any form from our employees, and that appropriate measures will be taken once the facts of the incident are brought to light.

Yours sincerely,
The MEA Team


TwitLonger — When you talk too much for Twitter

[moy1moy1]

Faith in Humanity, restored naa jd diay gyapun good arabs

[reptoid]

Pathetic racism. Lebanese are looked down in that region and in countries such as Australia, strange that they seem so willing to engage in similar or even worse behavior themselves.

[adminroot]

d pud nako ma blame kadtung nitawag sa attention sa mga pinoy/pinay.

naa jud times nga annoying jud kaayo specially sud sa bus, sud sa tindahan ug kana sa airport, sud sa iroplano nga ang tingog ug katawa dagko na kaayo

and thinking naa mo sa foreign land, mga taw tag-as na kaayo ug kilay nagtanaw sa mga pinay nga buhakhak ug ang tingog dagko na kaayo

mora ug naa sud sa ilang balay! moabot sa point na sapoton jud ka magtanaw.

the time siguro makadungog ko sa mga puti o laing race nga dagko na ug tingog kung hubog, diha d nako mahibung hahaha

[moy1moy1]

d pud nako ma blame kadtung nitawag sa attention sa mga pinoy/pinay.

naa jud times nga annoying jud kaayo specially sud sa bus, sud sa tindahan ug kana sa airport, sud sa iroplano nga ang tingog ug katawa dagko na kaayo

and thinking naa mo sa foreign land, mga taw tag-as na kaayo ug kilay nagtanaw sa mga pinay nga buhakhak ug ang tingog dagko na kaayo

mora ug naa sud sa ilang balay! moabot sa point na sapoton jud ka magtanaw.

the time siguro makadungog ko sa mga puti o laing race nga dagko na ug tingog kung hubog, diha d nako mahibung hahaha

They are Nepalese thought to be as Filipinos.

[adminroot]

They are Nepalese thought to be as Filipinos.

yeah i know

but sa airport way laing dagko ug tingog, mao na ang mapasanginlan/ ma pinpoint aw ang mga sabaan ng bayan lol

pero inig atubang sa IO ay sus mora ug mga angel, buoootan kaayo hahaha

kini ako opinion lang/ base sa akong experience.

[i_the_mighty]

^^ lol agree, labi na sa eroplano maoy tagning mga tingog. di nako malimtan tong kausa nga mga tagalog ga-kanchaway kay 1st time mouli sa managuyab (gikan UAE). gapanglingo akong tapad nga puti kay saba kaayo murag just now nakasakay og eroplano.

OnT Nepalese or not, racism should not be tolerated kay international flight man ilang gi-offer kaha. Og magpaka-racist sila, sa domestic flight ra na sila unta mag-trabaho.

[adminroot]

^^ lol agree, labi na sa eroplano maoy tagning mga tingog. di nako malimtan tong kausa nga mga tagalog ga-kanchaway kay 1st time mouli sa managuyab (gikan UAE). gapanglingo akong tapad nga puti kay saba kaayo murag just now nakasakay og eroplano.

OnT Nepalese or not, racism should not be tolerated kay international flight man ilang gi-offer kaha. Og magpaka-racist sila, sa domestic flight ra na sila unta mag-trabaho.

i felt sorry sa puti nga pasahero na lang jud hahaha

ako madunggan ani nila mga sabaan kay "alam mo bah kabayan buntis siiiii....", "hoooooy kabayaaaaan!" , "nasaan na ang jowa mo kabayaaaan!"....grabi ka palabi sa gibati

kadtu sa ako flight gibadlong jud sa FA kay nangriklamo na man ang mga pasahiro

[peewee_toot]

ok ra jud kaayo mo badlong esp if banha na jud kaayo to the extent nga naka perwisyo na sa ubang pasahero pero kailangan jud d i i-mention nga FILIPINO? hahaha. lawgawa!