Former USAID workers join activists in Capitol protest over placing them on paid leave

Former employees of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and HIV/AIDS activists staged a lie-in protest at the Capitol building in Washington.

The protests took place amid the Trump administration's decision to place nearly all USAID employees, both domestically and abroad, on paid leave while a revision of the agency's projects is being conducted, Caliber.Az reports citing British media.

Employees in Washington were asked to collect their personal belongings from the agency’s headquarters, which is set to be repurposed as an office for US Customs and Border Protection.

Around 30 protestors wore white T-shirts that read “Aids funding cuts kill” and chanted “Congress has blood on its hands, unfreeze aid now” and lay down in the rotunda of the Cannon House office building. They were urging lawmakers to take immediate action to restore foreign aid funding for HIV/AIDS programs that the administration has temporary put on hold.

Law enforcement officials reported that around 20 people were detained for failing to comply with orders to disperse.

To recall, Secretary of State Marco Rubio had been appointed the acting director of the agency and has imposed a temporary freeze on all US foreign assistance funded by or through the State Department and USAID for review, accusing the agency of funding projects that are not in the interests of American national security and considered wasteful in regards to taxpayers money, as well as often times not welcomed by the host country.

By Nazrin Sadigova