2024-05-01 14:57:40
Lebanon: Labor Day falls the day following the explosion at a restaurant in Beirut
One day comes workers’ holiday In Lebanon, the day following a tragic incident resulting from the explosion of a restaurant in Beirut, which claimed the lives of nine people and injured four others, including Lebanese and non-Lebanese employees and workers. According to available information, two gas cylinders exploded in a restaurant in the capital Beirut, without knowing the reasons until the report was written. The greatest number of victims were mourned Blast In their villages, today Thursday, in great sadness and anger.
Swallow Musa Dankour, the cousin of Walid Dankor who died in the incident, recounts the scale of the tragedy that struck their family. He told Al-Arabi Al-Jadeed: “We lost Walid, a young man of twenty-eight years old. He left behind a grieving wife and a sick child, barely a year and a half old. He points out that “Walid was moving his only son between hospitals, to provide him with appropriate treatment, he was also waiting for the due date of his six-month pregnant wife”, but “fate was quicker and snatched him away . hastily. He also left, leaving pain in the hearts of his parents, his brother and his three sisters.
Moussa adds: “Walid worked in a gas bottling and distribution company in Beirut. Yesterday (Tuesday), he was accompanied by his colleagues, delivering four bottles of gas to the restaurant where the explosion occurred, which is not known. do not yet know the causes. While Moussa says: “We have heard that there was a gas leak,” he stresses that the matter may involve “recklessness or negligence, but we are waiting for the precise data to be revealed through ongoing investigations “. He confirms that the explosion of a restaurant in Beirut is “a real tragedy” and explains that “a fire suddenly broke out behind Walid and his colleagues towards the entrance of the restaurant, which led them to flee inside and then head towards an underground passage. room that looked like a warehouse, so they got stuck at the bottom and suffocated to death.
In the same context, Abbas Harmoush, the uncle of the deceased Hussein Harmoush, speaks of “the extent of the pain that struck the family”. He told Al-Arabi Al-Jadeed: “Hussein is 33 years old and the father of two daughters. He was in the restaurant at the time of the explosion with his colleague Walid Dankour and a driver from the gas company where he worked. for regarding four years, because they were delivering gas cylinders. In turn, Ayman Harmoush, Hussein’s cousin, points out that his brother-in-law was “a hard worker who worked long hours diligently to ensure his family’s livelihood.” He loved his family and his city and was one of the best. the best of our youth. He adds that they are awaiting the results of the investigations before “moving towards prosecutions of those responsible for the explosion”.
As for Doctor Mohsen Assi, the uncle of Aya Marmar, 27, who died in the same explosion, he speaks warmly of his niece, who was not destined to live long. He told Al-Arabi Al-Jadeed that “she worked in marketing at the restaurant and only moved to its branch in Beirut regarding a month ago, following working in the branch in the southern suburbs of Beirut.” Assi explains: “Aya’s last day of work in the Capital branch was yesterday, and as fate would have it, it was her last day of life. »
In a related context, the head of the public relations division of the Beirut Fire Brigade, Captain Ali Najm, reported today Thursday to Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that “a member of the regiment is among the four injured” who have been hurt. injured in the explosion of a restaurant in Beirut yesterday, explaining that “technical and field investigations and examinations, criminal and judicial evidence will determine the reasons and show whether the incident was artificial, natural or due to chance.”
For his part, the executive director of the Lebanese Observatory for Workers’ and Employees’ Rights, Ahmed Al-Dirani, spoke to Al-Araby Al-Jadeed of a “real disaster.” He believes that “it is very regrettable that we witnessed, on the eve of Labor Day, the fall of innocent and hardworking victims, seeking to earn their living to provide for the needs of their families, abandoned to their fate and to their destiny” during the explosion of a restaurant in Beirut yesterday. He adds: “It is not enough that Lebanese workers suffer because of low wages and their inability to increase them in a context of the collapse of the national currency. Labor Day is coming and we have lost young men who have been victims of neglect.”
Al-Dirani confirmed that he is awaiting the results of the investigation, but he regrets “the lack of monitoring and inspection on the part of the competent authorities”, noting that “yesterday’s incident is proof of the lack of protection and safety measures at work, despite the fact that Lebanese labor law requires the provision of a safe and healthy working environment. He assumed “the primary responsibility of the Ministry of Labor, responsible for monitoring the extent to which restaurants respect public safety conditions and specifications, alongside the Health Directorate of the capital and the municipality of Beirut”.
While Al-Dirani deplores that “the branch relating to labor emergencies within the National Social Security Fund has not been created until today, even though it was approved several decades ago” , he affirms that his observatory works in partnership with the unions. federations for a comprehensive amendment of Lebanese labor law, particularly with regard to workplace safety measures and protection once morest arbitrary dismissals and dangerous working conditions.
1714585848
#Labor #Day #falls #day #Beirut #restaurant #explosion