Basra oil graduates extend sit-in as clashes reported

Shafaq News- Basra

Engineering, petroleum, and science graduates entered a second day of their open-ended sit-in outside the state-owned Basra Oil Company (BOC) on Monday, with a protest representative alleging continuing violations against demonstrators by company staff.

Hassan al-Shawi, the protest representative, told Shafaq News that the company’s employees had committed violations against peaceful demonstrators at the company's gates for a second consecutive day. A circulating video clip showed a company employee assaulting female graduates from engineering and petroleum disciplines outside the premises.

The sit-in began Sunday when graduates sealed all gates to the company's headquarters, the building locally known as the Ziggurat, vowing to maintain the blockade until the Oil Ministry releases ministerial contracts at profit-making state oil companies to absorb unemployed graduates, in line with Iraq's Federal Financial Management Law. Al-Shawi said the graduates had met Iraq's oil minister roughly three weeks earlier to present their demands but received no response, prompting the open-ended action.