Lebanon’s Internal Security Forces (ISF) retirees held a protest on Tuesday outside the Interior Ministry, under the national slogan: “All of us, for our country: for our glory and flag.”
In a statement issued during the gathering, the retirees warned against the infringement on their rights, “especially through the proposals prepared by the committees responsible for preparing a draft budget in its initial form.”
These proposals, the protesters said, would affect the earnings of ISF retirees “with explosive and toxic materials, which we will make explode in the face of their preparators and those who agree with them if they continue with them.”
The protesters then called on caretaker Interior Minister Mohammad Fahmi to take immediate measures to stop what they called “the humiliation that retired people are exposed to outside hospital doors that are no longer receiving them.”
They said that hospitals that do receive retirees issue them bills that “exceed the limits of logic and reason,” under the pretext of the difference in the exchange rate of the U.S. dollar.
These high costs, they went on to note, “explicitly contradict” the latest circulars issued by the Syndicate of Hospitals.
Finally, the protesters demanded that they and the retirees of all state agencies be given food assistance cards, with priority being given to unemployed individuals.
