Employees in Raqqa, Deir ez-Zor organize vigils

The residents of Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor held two separate protests against the Interim Government's policies towards employees, which continue to marginalize current and former staff, dismiss others, and not to pay salaries and benefits.

In Raqqa, protesters carried banners with "Our right to return is not a favor, but a legal entitlement," "Our demands to return to work are a right, fairness among us is a right, our cause is a right," "Better to cut necks than to cut livelihoods," "Justice is our demand," "Our right to return to work is a trust placed upon you," and "Minister, listen up... workers' right is not for sale" written on.

In Deir ez-Zor, a number of employees held similar protests against the continued non-payment of salaries for hundreds of employees in civil and service institutions for the second consecutive month, expressing their frustration with the ongoing delays in salary disbursement, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

These protests in Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor come amid the ongoing salary and civil administration crisis in Syria, where a large number of civil and service employees have been suffering from the non-payment of their salaries for several months.