Despite Autonomous Administration resolutions, safety measures not been achieved among workers

The agriculture workers in NE of Syria are victims of the workshop officials neglect and agricultural landowners despite the administration resolutions and measures to protect workers from the risk of contracting the Coronavirus.

NEWS

16 April, 2020 01:55

News Desk - Sharvin Mustafa - Ahmed Mohamed

The Autonomous Administration of the North and East of Syria announced on April 13th a series of resolutions related to the agricultural sector, farmers and workers in this sector, the main source of livelihood in the region.

The newly adopted resolutions facilitated the movements of farmers and workers with the harvest time approaching, provided that adherence with the new virus measures of protection against the outbreak of the novel Coronavirus.

Despite these resolutions, the situation of workers has not changed as it was before the Corona pandemic as the workshop officials and agricultural landowners kept on transporting workers in large numbers in small trucks, violating the instructions and decisions of the Autonomous Administration in this context.

Abir Muhammed and Wala'a Ali, two workers, pointed out that the vehicle that is transporting them is not the same as before in terms of the large number of female workers and social distancing.

Nevertheless, they indicated that they were heading to work in a group of 35 , noting that the Autonomous Administration resolution which stipulated that the number of female workers per car should not exceed 10 is not followed.

Landowners put the responsibility on workshop officials. Farmer, Nidal Rifaat Shami, owner of agricultural land in Neef village, southwest of Qamishlo noted. He has an area of 100 planted with cumin crop.

"We do not interfere with workers. We are responsible for paying the officials of the workshops on a daily basis. The workshop official is the one who handles the workers transportation. He should increase the number of vehicles to apply the decision and not increase the number of workers in one car," Shami said.

Workshop official, Hamid Abu Khaled, who works on Shamu farm, said he is responsible for more than 100 workers working in weeding and cleaning agricultural land.

Abu Khaled stressed that the difficult economic conditions of workers force them to resort to day labor," claiming that workers pay for the transportation, contrary to what the landowner pointed out, "if we increase the number of vehicles, it will cost more on the workers."

Abu Khaled noted that workers' wages are low, adding that "Every worker works for 1,000 to 1,500 Syrian pounds a day. If we increase the vehicles, they will have less access to daily income."

He called on agricultural landowners to bear transportation expenses and to keep daily wages as they are to help protect workers and prevent putting a large number of them in the same car.

On the administration and the security forces measures, the co-chair of the interior Authority in the Autonomous Administration, Hevi Mustafa spoke to Hawar News Agency.

"We are in the process of following up these decisions and punishing all its violators. We are working primarily to convince this group of the need to comply exclusively for their safety, and to raise awareness about the seriousness of this pandemic, which may spread if these violations continue," she said.

A.J

ANHA