Hiring a Syrian meant not having to pay social security, which had been obligatory for Lebanese workers since 1963, and avoiding the ever-growing social movements that had been rising up during those years to defend their rights.Īfter the civil war (1975-1990), extra labour was once again needed to assist with Lebanon’s reconstruction.īilateral cooperation agreements signed between Syria and Lebanon in 1994 allowed Syrians to work in Lebanon with no more than a residence permit, issued for three months at the border. Back then, an ordinary ID card was all they needed to show at the Lebanon-Syria border to be able to take on the hardest tasks in the development of the “Switzerland of the Middle East”. Many of them were already going to work there in the fields during harvest times, or on construction sites.īetween 19, there were already over a million Syrian seasonal workers entering the Land of the Cedars. That is no longer possible since a popular uprising, which started in his home town in March 2011, turned into an endless civil war, pushing over a million Syrians to take refuge in Lebanon. He used to go back to Daraa, in Syria, the rest of the time, to be with his wife and seven children. He has been leading this frugal existence for twenty years: working and living six months a year on Lebanese construction sites, for US$400 a month. Having completed the job, Abu, a toothless and emaciated man in his forties, is getting ready to go and see his Lebanese employer for work on a new construction site.
The school building is gleaming: 20,000 m² put together from A to Z by around a dozen Syrian workers, in a district of Beirut they have had no time to see.
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