About 50 port engineers transferred to al-Tanf crossing

The decision to transfer about 50 marine engineers working for the General Directorate of Ports to the al-Tanf border crossing with Iraq has sparked discontent among the engineers, who said the decision came after they had been on leave for about a year and a half and following interviews conducted after they were summoned through a virtual communication app.

According to the engineers, temporary replacements on annual contracts were appointed to fill their positions during their leave. They said some of these replacements, in their view, do not have the qualifications and specializations required to perform duties related to marine engineering, navigation and offshore operations.

The engineers added that they were summoned in the middle of last month to interviews at the General Directorate of Ports. According to their accounts, the interviews focused on military and reserve service and their areas of service, in addition to security-related questions, while their specializations and professional experience in the maritime field received comparatively little attention.

The engineers said that about 10 days after the interviews, around 50 of them were informed through messages on the same communication app of the decision to transfer them to the al-Tanf border crossing and required to report for work there. They stressed that, according to their accounts, the decision was not accompanied by any official explanation of the reasons for the transfer, the nature of the duties assigned to them, or the legal and administrative grounds on which it was based.