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BEIRUT, 13
April 2009 (IRIN) - Rights and labour groups say almost all
the estimated 300,000 Syrians working in Lebanon have no
official status, often endure dangerous conditions, and earn
about US$300 a month doing jobs shunned by most Lebanese.
In 2006, the Labour Ministry issued just 471 work permits to
Syrian nationals, meaning the remainder worked unregistered.
According to 2008 research by Beirut-based InfoPro, over 75
percent of Syrians in Lebanon work in construction, 15
percent are cleaners and bin men, and 10 percent hawkers.
About 15 percent of Syria’s workforce is in Lebanon. They
often either live on the construction site where they work
or share tiny flats with a dozen other workers.
René Matta, general manager of Matta Contracting, a Lebanese
company whose workforce is 70 percent Syrian, said Syrian
labour in Lebanon “should be more organised, so that people
aren’t oppressed”.
Anti-Syrian sentiment has existed in Lebanon ever since the
two countries gained independence from France in the 1940s
and Syrians worked in agriculture, creating an influx of
Muslims that many Christian Lebanese saw as a threat to
their country’s sectarian balance.
Syrian workers became the victim of an unprecedented low in
relations between the two countries in the wake of the 2005
assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri which
many Lebanese blamed on Damascus and which forced Syria to
withdraw its military from Lebanon, ending two decades of
direct control over its smaller neighbour.
Many Syrians in Lebanon have been
attacked, robbed, beaten
and sometimes killed over the past four years.
Despite the recent opening of an embassy in Beirut, few
Syrian labourers in Lebanon think their labour rights and
personal safety will be protected any time soon.
Fear
“If something happened to me, who would I complain to?”
asked Eide, an 18-year-old Syrian construction worker who
has been living and working in Lebanon for 10 months. Eide
said he lives in daily fear of attack by anti-Syrian
Lebanese gangs: “It’s not unusual for Lebanese to ask for
our ID cards on the street and then take our money because
we’re Syrian.”
Mohammed, a Syrian now working as a janitor in a Beirut
restaurant, said he had to leave his job last summer because
of poor working conditions. After working for several months
as a cleaner at a swimming pool, Mohammed told his boss the
chemicals he was using were damaging his skin. He said he
was sacked on the spot and not paid his final salary.
All Syrian workers interviewed requested that only their
first names be published, fearing reprisals for speaking
out.
“Socio-economic racism”
Nadim Houry, senior researcher for Human Rights Watch (HRW)
in Beirut, refers to the Syrian-Lebanese migrant labour
phenomenon as a “marriage of convenience” for the two
countries.
Many Lebanese companies save money by hiring Syrian workers,
whose contracts can be terminated at any time but who can
enter Lebanon without a visa.
“It’s part of Lebanon’s history,” said Houry. “Syrian
workers have become scapegoats because they’re perceived as
weak. There is an issue of discrimination in Lebanon towards
those of lower socio-economic status. They look down upon
poor people from rural areas. It’s a sort of socio-economic
racism.”
In its 2 January edition, Al-Akhbar, one of the few Lebanese
newspapers to regularly cover the issue, reported that a
Syrian worker was robbed at gunpoint by a member of the
Lebanese military in civilian clothing. In late December
2008, the same newspaper reported a Syrian had been killed
during a robbery near Byblos. In the same month, a Syrian
worker of Kurdish origin was found hanged in his own shoe
shop in Bar Elias in the Bekaa Valley, eastern Lebanon.
Many incidents go unreported. In interviews with 10 Syrian
workers at construction sites throughout Beirut, all said
they had been victims of robberies and occasional beatings
by Lebanese; all said it had been because they are Syrian;
none said they had reported the incidents to the
authorities.
“I don’t have any Lebanese friends. I never have,” said one
Syrian construction worker. “Why should I? They don’t like
us.”
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