As Emmanuel Macron heads to Egypt, activists are calling on the French president to address abuses at an Egyptian shipyard building battleships in partnership with a French company, reports FRANCE 24.
In May 2016, hundreds of workers at the Alexandria Shipyard Company in northern Egypt staged a two-day, peaceful sit-in over fairly routine labour rights issues. The employees were demanding improvements in their work conditions – including safety equipment – and wage increases commensurate with the national monthly minimum wage.
The nature of the sit-in did not appear to be particularly crippling or adversarial: workers demonstrated in shifts while production continued at Alexandria Shipyard, which is owned and operated by the Egyptian military.
The response to the sit-in though has shocked international labour rights defenders. In a systematic crackdown, the Egyptian military suspended hundreds of Alexandria Shipyard employees and arrested over two dozen workers. The latter were only released months later after they were forced to resign from their jobs.
But the ordeal did not end there. More than two years after the sit-in incident, the 26 civilian workers who were released from jail still face trial in a military court, which has delayed a verdict 30 times. Meanwhile hundreds of Alexandria Shipyard employees are still barred from the factory, according to a report by the Dublin-based Front Line Defenders released this week.
The labour rights violations have proceeded under the noses of managerial staff of the French company, Naval Group, according to the 45-page report, “Striking Back: Egypt’s Attack on Labour Rights Defenders”. Since a 2014 military deal was signed between France and Egypt, the Alexandria Shipyard has been working full throttle on the 1-billion-euro arms deal reached during a visit by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to Paris.
Under the deal, France was to furnish four Gowind battleships to the Egyptian Navy. The contract was won by Naval Group - in which the French state holds a 62 percent majority stake. The French-Egyptian agreement stipulated that the first corvette-class battleship would be produced in France while the other three were to be built in Egypt under a transfer of technology agreement.
The first Gowind battleship was delivered to the Egyptian Navy at a ceremony in the northwestern port city of Lorient in September 2017. The second, hailed as “the first warship built in Egypt", was launched last year.
The Front Line Defenders report states that during the two-year labour dispute – which saw civilian workers in police stations and military tribunals while their lawyers faced intimidation by the Egyptian military – Naval Group staff had a “permanent presence” at the factory as per the 2014 contract agreement. A source close to Alexandria Shipyard told researchers that “between 2014 and 2015, between 15 and 25 Naval Group staff and contractors were present daily on the site, with numbers depending on the GOWIND [sic] production stage".
When asked about the allegations, Naval Group Press Relations Director Emmanuel Gaudez declined to comment. In an emailed response to FRANCE 24, Gaudez noted, “The Egyptian shipyard is not the subcontractor of Naval Group. We have no leeway to intervene in labour-related matters. The Alexandria Shipyard (ASY) is a public construction site governed by Egyptian law; we do not intervene in internal affairs.The Egyptian Ministry of Defence has a direct contract at the Alexandria Shipyard in Egypt. Alexandria Shipyard (ASY) is a public shipyard whose personnel are managed according to Egyptian law.”
Egypt has routinely ranked high in the pecking order of the world’s worst human rights abusers with the allegations spiraling since Sisi took power in a 2013 military coup.
In its 2018 World Report released Thursday, the New York-based Human Rights Watch noted that since Sisi “secured a second term in a largely unfree and unfair presidential election in March, his security forces have escalated a campaign of intimidation, violence, and arrests".
The violations have not affected military and trade deals between Paris and Cairo, which have increased since the Obama administration temporarily embargoed US weapons sales to the Sisi administration following the 2013 coup.
Franco-Egyptian economic cooperation is set to receive a further boost later this month when Macron arrives in Egypt January 27th on a two-day official visit. The French presidential visit is expected to see the signing of new deals, with French Ambassador to Egypt Stéphane Romatet telling the Egyptian media last month that the visit was a “good occasion to announce the new deals which we are working on now, however, it’s too early to reveal more details".