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A Palestinian man who worked for the EU in Gaza has appealed to the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, after the closure of his office left him in Cairo without a job or residency rights.
Mohammed Baraka, who served at the EU border assistance mission at Rafah in southern Gaza and was evacuated to Egypt when the war broke out, has accused Brussels officials of “coldly” dismissing him from his job by email and “abandoning” a loyal employee.
He now has no way of returning to Gaza but also no right to remain in Egypt and no possibility of going anywhere else because, he says, he has no papers due to the hasty evacuation in 2023.
In a letter to von der Leyen seen by the Guardian, Baraka has begged her to intervene and reverse the decision, saying he was “not consulted or warned” that he would be let go after nearly two decades of working for the EU.
“How can the European Union justify abandoning a long-serving employee during a war – an employee who was evacuated under [his] own protection and who has no safe path forward?”
“I am not asking for charity. I am asking for justice,” he says in the letter dated 22 June.
“This is not just a question of employment. It is a question of human rights, dignity, and moral responsibility. If the EU can dismiss a staff member under these conditions, what message does it send to all those who believe in the values the EU claims to defend?” he adds.
Baraka served with the EU border assistance mission (EUBam) at Rafah after its inception in 2006 as an unarmed civilian third-party presence at the border between Gaza and Egypt to assist in the administration of crossings.
The only staff member based in Gaza, he was evacuated to Cairo in November 2023, but continued to work for the office assisting with the passage of NGO personnel including doctors and humanitarian aid.
He now cannot return to Gaza; his house had been bombed and more than 100 members of his extended family had been killed in the war, he said. In Egypt he fears for his family’s future. With a seriously ill wife, he has written to a former EU diplomat in the region for help. “Please if something happened to me, please take care of my daughters. They have no one here if I die,” he wrote.
The diplomat, who has intervened on his behalf, has urged the EU’s high representative, Kaja Kallas, to approach Egypt’s foreign minister “to immediately secure a residency and work permit in Cairo” for Baraka.
If the EU failed to secure his right to stay in Egypt, it should “relocate and continue to employ him in Brussels”, added the diplomat, who asked not to be named.
The EU has said his evacuation from the war zone, which it assisted with, was “voluntary”. It says it is providing Baraka with a “comprehensive financial and welfare severance package” in view of the “exceptional circumstances” of his case. But it said it was unable to help with residency rights or work permits in Egypt.
Baraka says his two children witnessed atrocities in Gaza and have been unable to go to school for two years.
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“I love the EU, I consider myself part of the EU, but to coldly fire me by email; in the end they are treating me like I am nothing, not a human being. I feel like I am being pushed into a corner and being pushed away,” he said.
He believes he now faces homelessness as he has no legal right to be in Egypt and the lease on his apartment is expiring in August. “They need to know that serving the European Union has come at a high cost,” he said.
In his letter he begs von der Leyen to reverse what he calls his “unjust dismissal” and asks her to restore his employment, even temporarily, “until a dignified and legal solution is arranged” to ensure his family’s “safety and legal protection” until they can return home or be relocated to another country.
The EU said it had tried to transfer Baraka to EUBam’s office in Jericho, in the West Bank, but the Israeli government refused.
A spokesperson for the Israeli government said: “In accordance with the policy set by the political echelon and due to current security considerations, residents of the Gaza Strip are not permitted to enter the Judea and Samaria area,” a biblical term used by the government to refer to the West Bank.
An EU spokesperson said: “The conclusion of Mr Baraka’s employment is a legal consequence of the mission’s reconfiguration and the closure of the Gaza office. This is standard practice when offices are closed, and consistent with how such situations are handled across EU missions globally.”
The spokesperson added: “In view of the exceptional circumstances, the EU is providing Mr Baraka with a comprehensive financial and welfare severance package following the end of his contract. Regarding residency status in Egypt, the EU does not have the authority to issue residence or work permits in third countries.”
