Algeria: dozens of unemployed demonstrate at "1st May Square"

01 May, 2011

ALGIERS - A few dozen unemployed people gathered on Sunday at “1st May Square” in Algiers to demand "dignity" and "decent jobs" as the world celebrates Labor Day, according to the press.

These men came from different parts of the country to call the authorities to find a solution to the problem of employment, demonstrated peacefully for about an hour in favor of "healthy living".

A spokesman for the National Committee for the Defense of the unemployed, Samir Larabi, claimed on their behalf an unemployment benefit of 50% of the minimum wage (15,000 dinars, about 150 euros) for all unemployed, double the basic wage of workers and a ban on redundancies.

Unemployed appear regularly across the country for months. Recently, on March 16, fifteen of them had been wounded in the oil town of Hassi Messaoud, over 800 km southeast of Algiers, while protesting against a government recruitment office accused with corruption. Three days earlier, it was four officers of Annaba, 600 miles west of Algiers, who were injured in riots triggered by unemployed youths.

The unemployment rate is slightly more than 10% of the estimated 36 million Algerians, but higher than 21% among those under 30 years.

Source: Ennahar.
Link: http://www.ennaharonline.com/en/news/6407.html.