1st floor of building held legal documents, as well as paperwork for foreign employees

BEIRUT: The fire that consumed the first floor of the Labor Ministry in Shiah during Thursday's nationwide strike against gasoline prices, incinerated a large number of legal documents and notices related to foreign workers - a loss that may take months to sort out.

Despite the damage, which included the destruction of filings by employees against their employers, none of Lebanon's top three leaders contacted the ministry for an assessment.

"Unfortunately, none of the three presidents called," Labor Minister Assaad Hardan said at a news conference Friday held in Hamra.

Rateb Saliba, the ministry's director-general, said the rioters who burned the ministry were "saboteurs" bent on attacking government institutions, and were unrelated to the "peaceful" protesters engaged in Thursday's strike.

"They burned the entire ministry's documents and files that concern the residence of foreign employees registered in both the Beirut and Mount Lebanon governorates, in addition to all judicial claims presented by employees against their employers," Saliba told The Daily Star.

The incident left companies who employ foreign workers and many of their employees wondering about the repercussions of such a mess on their original files and documents, which were all stored on the ministry's first floor.

Employers are required to post LL1.5 million as a guarantee when they hire a foreigner, and can only recuperate the sum after getting an "original" residence paper from the Labor Ministry. Many such documents are believed to have been incinerated by the fire.

Despite the mess and general confusion, shocked ministry officials were busy Friday erasing the fire's marks, in a concerted effort to reopen as soon as next Wednesday.

Workers spent all night Thursday extinguishing the fire, while Sukleen rushed to the scene on Friday morning to clean the black offices.

Numerous trucks carted away burned documents and files.

"We spent all night cleaning the mess," Hardan said.

Damaged papers, when recovered, were placed in a corner on the first floor, while workers tried to remove the black powder that marked the fire's path.

No computers were left for the clean-up crew, however, as the 300 riots that attacked the ministry either threw them from the office's windows or made off with them after the fire began to spread.

Apparently unsatisfied with burning the floor's contents, rioters collected papers from the ministry's warehouse, located in a basement, and burned them along with the rest of the documents and files.

According to ministry officials, a number of documents were also stolen.

Hardan, echoing the comments of his director-general, did not blame the strike's organizers for the attacks, saying that the General Labor Confederation and the political forces who participated in the strike would not perpetrate such attacks.

"The concerned agencies will surely reveal the identity of those who are behind the attack, which was done deliberately to interfere with our ministry."

Hardan added that he believed the attacks were made on the Labor Ministry because it happened to be located on the street where the demonstrations were being held.

Commenting on the concerns of some companies and workers, Saliba said all citizens and foreigners should not worry about the legal documents that "had been" present at the ministry.

"We will take exceptional measures in the coming days concerning employers who had to renew their foreign employees' papers," he said.

Usually, employers renew the papers of their foreign employees at the ministry on a yearly basis, and they pay a fine if there is a delay.

"We will allow employers one additional month to renew their employees' papers, and we will make sure to collaborate with the Surete Generale on that matter," he said.

Saliba said that the ministry had started to computerize its legal documents - which might have mitigated the effects of the fire - but that legal papers from the last year had not been entered into the system.

The ministry also issued a statement on Friday saying that citizens who want to inquire about legal documents should approach the ministry beginning next Wednesday, with a certified copy of any original documents.

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