MEA employee fired over racist remarks

A Middle East Airlines official reported that the company has dismissed the female staff member implicated in a racist incident during the weekend.

The MEA posted on its Facebook page Tuesday that “severe disciplinary action” was taken against the two staff members involved in the incident, while an anonymous official from the airline told the Associated Press that the female employee had been dismissed.

The penalty came after an online petition claiming apology from MEA was posted, after a passenger, Abed Shaheen, witnessed a MEA employee singling out Filipino and Nepalese customers over the loudspeaker Saturday evening at the Beirut airport, instructing them to be quiet and mocking them.

"A woman staffing the counter at the gate took a loudspeaker and announced, "Filipino people, stop talking," Shaheen said. He said the woman's male colleague corrected her, telling her the travelers were from Nepal, not the Philippines. The woman proceeded to admonish the group twice more, giggling as she did so.

The incident is part of what human rights groups say is widespread discrimination and abuse of foreign workers in Lebanon.

Shaheen said he was outraged and walked up to the counter to complain. He said he was brushed off by the two members of the ground staff and was told they would do as they please.

He later launched a protest campaign on Facebook and Twitter and sent an email to MEAG, an MEA subsidiary that handles ground services. Shaheen said he received a call from a senior official in MEAG and was promised the company would investigate.

In the statement published Tuesday, the state-owned company said that “This type of behavior represents an isolated case, and is 100 percent against MEA’s policy. It does not fit within MEA’s culture, and furthermore goes contrary to our training procedures.”

However, many MEA customers stressed that the airline should have also made a public apology while others said that the individual staff members' names must be exposed.

Nadim Houry, a researcher in Lebanon for the New York-based group Human Rights Watch lauded the social media campaign protesting Saturday's airport incident, calling it a sign of change.

"The latest incident shows that more and more people in Lebanon are angry and tired of this racism that exists," Houry said, while urging the government to do more to protect foreign workers.

Michelle Hatem commented that, “Racism is not to be tolerated and especially among MEA staff. As a Lebanese citizen I am proud of MEA and I would like to see the appropriate consequence taken to ensure that this does not happen again.”

Mazen Hajjar added, “How about some transparency and explaining who they were or at least what action was taken? This is a joke and reflective of a culture of no accountability. It is your duty to inform us as clients what action was taken. You are owned by the Lebanese people through the Central Bank and you need to come clean with us.

For its part, LBCI also participated in reverberating the cause launched by Shaheen. LBCI blogger and Senior Online English Editor Nadine Mazloum noted that MEA "has been on a steep decline in terms of professionalism and quality".  Mazloum also called on readers to realize the power of social media and its affect on instigating positive change, "Such is the power of social media. Use it wisely, use it to claim back your rights, use it to denounce the power of those who think themselves as unbreakable, use it to grant grounds to those who think themselves above the ground and above the law." To read LBCI's blog post on this matter please click on this link.


AP/LBCI