Syrian Workers In Lebanon

The plight of Syrian workers - as with Asian maids - is one of the most under-reported stories about Lebanon, a nation that that ostensibly claims it is the Paris of the Middle East.

Syrian workers have always been resented by many Christian Lebanese who viewed their Muslim presence is threatening the sectarian balance in the country.

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But they were never truly harmed, particularly as Syria occupied Lebanon from 1978 to 2005.

But with the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, believed to have been committed by Syria, Syrians have become scapegoats and routinely robbed, beaten and even killed both by right-wing Christians and some Sunni Muslims.

There are believed to be around 300,000 unregistered Syrian workers in Lebanon. They attend to jobs that most Lebanese deem beneath them. 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.

Since the Syrians have left, the nation's workers have been without protection. Sunnis and Christians, both communities have lost leaders in assassinations believed to have been conducted by Syrian agents, have been taking their revenge on innocent, defenseless Syrian workers.

The workers are improvised, most of whom living in cramped apartments or building sites. Because of their lack of social-standing, they evoke little sympathy in a class-based society such as Lebanon.

In December 2007, Syrian Radwan was fast asleep when three men broke down the door of his flat. They beat him. They broke one of his ribs. Then two held his arms while the third slashed his head with a knuckleduster. His crime, they told him, was to be a Syrian working in Lebanon.

After Radwan - who like all Syrians interviewed by IRIN gave a false name for fear of retribution - went to the police, the thugs came back. “They told me I had to tell the police I’d lied, or I’d be going back to Syria in a coffin,” he said. He did as he was told.

Such beatings are part of a pattern.

A wave of “tens” of killings and many more beatings of Syrian workers in Lebanon followed Hariri’s assassination, Amnesty International said at the time, calling for perpetrators to be caught and tried.

But workers and activists say violence continues at a lower ebb. Severe attacks reported against Syrian workers in Lebanon in 2007 included the killing of two men in Damour, near Sidon, in October; a man stabbed to death and another injured in the mountain resort of Aley in July; a man found dead after his skull was smashed in January and a man in his 60s apparently smothered to death in October. The media frequently report the torching of Syrian workers’ tents and shacks.

Although the prime minister's office has spoken out against the attacks after receiving a report on the matter from the security service. “This report drew attention to the fact that every day there are about four incidents against Syrian workers across all areas of Lebanon, most of them involving theft, whether in petrol stations, homes or shops,” his spokesman said. Nonetheless, attacks often go unpunished and unreported as Syrians are afraid of speaking out.

Many who complain fear deportation, or beatings as official Lebanese security officials have often robbed Syrians. And on Syrian worker reports being robbed at gun point by an off-duty soldier. Even when Syrians complain about safety regulation at job sites they suffer consequences. When a young Syrian was working at a private pool club in Beirut and brought to his boss' attention the fact that the chemicals he was working with were damaging his hands, he states that his boss fired him on the spot and denied him his last paycheck.

A Beirut lawyer and legal columnist, who preferred not to be named, said a Syrian who ran a local car park was recently severely beaten by intelligence officers in a room in his office building.

“I tried to persuade him to let me represent him in court, but he refused to report it, he was too afraid,” the lawyer said.

In late December 2008, the [Al-Akhbar] 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.”

Beirut is making quite a big deal of its rebuilding after the civil war. The city is home to new world-class bars and lounges, vineyards and new hotels [including a soon to open Four Seasons]. Some Lebanese often like to boost that their country is "special" in the region. This immodest exaltation is rooted often in a racist belief that Lebanese, particularly the Christians, are more civilized than other Arabs; an ideology popularized by the far-right Phalange party. They view is that Lebanese are misplaced Westerns.

If Lebanon truly aspires to be seen as the Paris of the East, then it should begin by adopting human rights standards that Westerns are accustomed to. Otherwise, it is all a facade.

Author's Note: Italics are cited passages from the following sources:

LEBANON-SYRIA: Wretched conditions for Syrian workers

LEBANON: Syrian workers living “in a world of enemies”