The Lebanese Embassy in Baghdad announced today, Thursday, that an investigation has been opened regarding the incident of crowding involving Iraqi students. The embassy stated in a message received by the Iraqi News Agency (INA) that "the pushing and assault on students in front of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education building in Beirut, including our dear Iraqi students, is unacceptable and has become the subject of high-level monitoring and investigation by the relevant ministers and directors."
Additionally, the embassy mentioned, "As a demonstration of high-level official interest, the embassy was informed by Prime Minister Najib Mikati, through the Lebanese Minister of Labor, that he will meet with Iraqi students in his office at the government palace to affirm the preservation of their dignity and care for them."
For its part, the Lebanese Ministry of Education confirmed that its staff is keen on preserving the dignity of every individual who has dealings or inquiries with it, noting that "it treats everyone, including Lebanese and non-Lebanese, equally without any discrimination, especially the Iraqi brothers who study at Lebanese universities and submit their transactions and certificates for equivalence at the ministry."
The caretaker Minister of Education Abbas Halabi indicated that "the number of employees is small compared to the number of transactions received, which exceeds the capacity of employees to meet their requests as quickly as they wish."
A statement from the ministry noted that "guards at the ministry building were surprised by noise early Thursday morning, so they went out to check the source, and they found more than 100 Iraqi students present, who were conflicting among themselves regarding their right to enter, while the doors remained closed at dawn. The guards attempted to calm them down after residents from the surrounding buildings came out onto their balconies."
The statement continued, "When the ministry opened its doors to receive citizens and visitors at eight in the morning, a huge number of Iraqi students entered at once, overcrowding the entrance to the equivalency department amid attempts by authorities to organize the entry after they took the passports and started calling names. Suddenly, one of the Iraqi students collapsed to the ground and fainted, and the pushing for priority of entry continued."
The statement further revealed that a number of "Iraqi students at the forefront cooperated with the Internal Security Forces and building security guards to convince the pushing students to step back a little to lift the young man from the ground; however, they did not retreat and the young man ended up under the feet of the Iraqi students, prompting one of the security personnel to raise his voice while holding a piece of the fence used to organize the queue to persuade them to back off. After this action, the young man was lifted, and it was found that he suffered from asthma and could not endure the lack of oxygen and was assisted by the Lebanese Red Cross. The Director General of Education summoned a force from the nearby police station to reorganize and manage the affairs of all nationalities and work on calming the situation."
