Syrian Workers Take Brunt of Lebanon Crisis

by **Admin** Fri Mar 14, 2008 12:29 pm

As dawn breaks each day, Joseph heads to a busy Beirut intersection where he waits for up to eight hours in the hope that someone will need him for a job.
Joseph, who is in his early 40s, is a Syrian migrant worker in Lebanon.

He has been here for years and remains although life has become tough, economically and even politically.

Syrian laborers like Joseph are an integral part of Lebanon's economy. Their presence, however, has become increasingly controversial since 2005 when Syria was widely blamed for the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and Damascus was forced to end its dominance over its tiny neighbor.

This has made life harder, sometimes even dangerous, for the migrants.

There are tens of thousands of Syrian workers like Joseph in Lebanon, but no official figures are available on their exact number. The labor ministry says "dozens" are registered but provides no further information.

Most Syrian migrant workers don't know if they will make ends meet on a given day. The arduous morning wait might be fruitless or someone might come by and pick them up for 12 to 14 hours working on a construction site or in agriculture. But the boss at the end of the day might decide not to pay them their daily wage and there is no one to turn to for help.

"There is no one to protect your rights. Sometimes the employers don't pay us or just kick us out after days of work, but we have no choice. We have to work in order to survive," says Joseph, who has a degree and once taught Arabic in a school in the Syrian city of Aleppo.

"We leave our families behind to come here, because with wages as they are, it is too expensive to live back home."

Mazen, who owns a Lebanese construction company and asked that his real name not be used, estimates that 75 percent of construction workers in Lebanon are Syrian.

As political tensions gripped the country after Hariri's killing and a series of political assassinations afterwards, economic and political conditions worsened. Syrian workers often bear the brunt of the blame leveled at Syria, sometimes being targets for attacks.

"Since 2005, life here has become more difficult. Whereas before you could save two thirds of your salary, now you can barely make ends meet," said Joseph who usually earns 20,000 Lebanese lira (about 13 dollars) a day.

"When an assassination takes place here, most of us don't dare leave home. Some of my friends even go back to Syria because they fear being attacked."

Lebanon's political divisiveness can, in most cases, be mapped geographically, with certain areas considered loyal to the government, and others considered loyal to the opposition.

Mazen has also felt the effects of this.

"Syrians are more picky about the areas in which they are willing to work. Like if I have a project in a given area and I ask the Syrian employee to come to work there, he'll say: 'No, no, no. I am not going to work there, otherwise I might get beaten'," explains Mazen.

"As a matter of fact, at one site I have 50 Syrian employees and one Lebanese guard from the area to protect them. Otherwise they might get attacked."

Many Syrians have been the victims of crimes, including beatings, robberies, the setting on fire of tents where they live, and even killings.

"Before (2005), you could walk around comfortably without any problems. Now, we don't feel safe," said Khaled, who was beaten by a group of young men one day as he was walking down the street.

"I didn't know who they were. They didn't take anything from me. They just beat me up for no reason."

In spite of a lack of available information, Human Rights Watch (HRW) was able to document 12 beatings of Syrian laborers, seven knife attacks, three instances of tents being set ablaze, one incident where a Molotov cocktail was thrown on a construction site and seven violent incidents in which 10 Syrians were killed in 2007.

There is no way directly to link political motivation to the attacks, but there is a trend, HRW said.

"There is no doubt to me that Syrian workers in Lebanon are victims on both ends. They are victims of the tensions between Lebanon and Syria ... and ultimately, they are the victims of their socio-economic conditions," says Nadim Houry, an HRW researcher in Lebanon.

"The question becomes: what do the authorities do about it?"
Prime Minister Fouad Saniora publicly expressed concern over the attacks on April 30 last year, strongly condemning them as "inhumane."

It is not clear, however, that this concern has translated into concrete steps taken by the security forces.

While there have been notable cases where the perpetrators are tried and penalized, many go unpunished.

"When my friends get robbed or have a problem, the police tell them: 'You know how many other issues we have to deal with?' So, we can't really get help," says Joseph.

"I would say we haven't seen a serious investigation effort when it comes to attacks against Syrian workers," explains Houry. "That's not necessarily unique to Syrians ... It fits into the broader pattern of impunity in the country. Many people get away with murder, literally."
Despite the dangers and difficulties, most Syrian laborers take the risk and stay in Lebanon for the higher wages.

"Lebanese people are kind and generous. They are living under a lot of pressure too," says Joseph quietly.

"There are, of course, hoodlums who sometimes come after us. But we come here to make a better life for ourselves and our families like anyone else. Even if things don't change, we need to stay to build our future. What choice do we have?"(AFP)

Beirut, 14 Mar 08, 12:10