Issue No. 597
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1 - 7 August 2002 Issue No. 597 Features |
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Recommend this page | ||
Rough journeys
In Lebanon, a country already overwhelmed with debt and economic crises, thousands of Egyptian workers live below the poverty-line. Alaa Shahine writes from Beirut on the false promise of wealth
In 1997, Fathi graduated from Dar Al-Ulum College, Cairo University's academy of Arabic language and religious studies. Like many of his fellow-graduates, he embarked on a teaching career but resigned after only a few months. "I couldn't make ends meet on the low government salary and I also couldn't face the ferocious competition among teachers for private lessons. I was just starting my life," recounts Fathi who now works as a waiter at a restaurant near Lebanon's famous Jeita's Grotto.
We met in front of the empty restaurant on an unexpectedly hot February day. Putting on a funny Lebanese accent, he was helping a small group of Arab tourists find their way around town. "I heard that Lebanon has a lot of job opportunities so I decided to come," Fathi told me a few minutes later as we sat at an empty table.
Like thousands of his peers who are chasing an illusive dream of being able to provide a living for themselves, maybe even amassing a fortune, Fathi headed for a country that is recuperating from a 17-year long civil war. To reach his destination, Fathi had to sneak into Lebanon illegally across the Syrian border, paying $500 to smugglers. "I started to work as a waiter, earning $200 per month, the minimum wage here, and now I get $250. But I depend on the tips and I am trying hard to save money to go back to Egypt."
But in a country with a sky-rocketing cost of living, the salary he makes barely allows him to survive. "The economic situation in Lebanon is dramatically deteriorating and it is becoming much harder for us to save money," he added. Consequently, Egyptian workers in Lebanon live in conditions that are usually associated with abject poverty. In order to save money from their already low salaries, they share housing. One can easily find 12 people sharing a three-room flat in one of Beirut's slum areas. "Each one of us pays around $20 per month," Fathi explained. "And if you are lucky enough, you can sleep at your place of work and save rent money."
Being second-class citizens and several steps below Lebanon's highly-skilled foreign workforce, Egyptians are forced to accept menial jobs. The long list on offer runs from waiters and gardeners to office boys, shisha (water-pipe) attendants and domestics. The majority, however, work at gas stations. It was no surprise, therefore, when I found an Egyptian employed at a gas- station in a remote mountain village 1,000 metres above sea level.
However, while the likes of Fathi are aware of the growing difficulties that working in Lebanon can pose to Egyptian workers, it seems that many others back home are not -- or are desperate enough to brave the obstacles. According to the Lebanese Ministry of Labour, only 13,500 Egyptian workers have legal work permits in Lebanon, while estimates indicate that over 50,000 workers are in the country illegally and have yet to legalise their status. "The Egyptian workforce in Lebanon constitutes the second biggest male foreign workforce after the Syrians who are not required to get a legal work permit to work here," a top official in the Lebanese Ministry of Labour told Al- Ahram Weekly.
Indeed, thousands of Egyptian workers continue to sneak across the Syrian borders where the entrance fees they are charged have soared in recent years. "I had to pay $1,000 to Syrian smugglers to get into Lebanon last summer, but I think I won't last long in this country and I will return to Egypt before next year," said Essam, another Egyptian who works as an office boy in one of Lebanon's Arabic-language dailies.
Essam came to Lebanon to replace his cousin, Khaled who, after putting in many years of hard work, saved enough money to go back home to his village in Fayoum. Essam, however, does not think he will make it. "Khaled was able to adapt to life here and I think that the economic conditions when he came were much better than they are now," Essam said.
Khaled is not the only one who was able to etch a living and some savings from rosier days of the Lebanese economy. Hosni, who works as a cook in one of Beirut's most popular cafés, The Glass Café, noted: "I came to Lebanon in 1991 and paid $300 at that time to get across the borders. Since then I've been lucky enough to become a legal resident and get a work permit. That was six years ago and now I get paid more than some Lebanese workers because of my vast experience in the field," he added.
Egyptians who do not have the money to get across the Syrian border are given the option of paying half the fee but with the condition that they hand over to the smugglers their passports as a guarantee that they will, eventually, pay the total amount. This way, they risk being arrested without having proper documentation on them and with little other than a regional accent to identify their origin. In these cases, the Lebanese General Security Authority contacts the Egyptian Embassy which, in turn, takes the suspects' fingerprints and sends them on to Egypt for the identity verification process. Usually the detainees are sent back and their names black-listed, indicating that they are prohibited from entering Lebanon again.
Recently, however, Lebanon and Egypt have entered into diplomatic cooperation in a bid to control the flux of illegal Egyptian workers. On his recent visit to Beirut last January, Egyptian Minister of Labour Ahmed El-Amawi concluded an agreement with his Lebanese counterpart, Essam Qanso, whereby Egyptian workers without work permits were given until the end of March to leave the country without being blacklisted or forced to pay fines for entering the country illegally. On the Lebanese front, people wanting to employ Egyptian workers must obtain the General Security's approval in order to secure a work permit beforehand.
"Such steps go alongside the Lebanese-Syrian security cooperation to prevent people from sneaking into the country," a top official in the Lebanese General Security Authority told the Weekly. "But we have to admit that it is almost impossible to have clean borders," added the source who spoke to the Weekly on condition of anonymity. "Even a country like the United States of America cannot prevent hundreds of illegal Mexican immigrants from entering the country despite its tight security system."
James Romanos, a retired Syrian soldier who served at the Lebanese borders, echoed the same sentiments. "Syria's borders with Lebanon are very rough. At certain points there are only mountains and narrow paths," he said. "We used to have regular patrols, especially along the area known as Deir Al-Ashaier which is the most notorious territory for smuggling goods, commodities and human beings. But despite our efforts, the area's rough terrain has always made it difficult for us to combat smugglers," he explained.
Ironically, measures to reduce the number of illegal Egyptian workers mostly tend to annoy Lebanese businessmen who favour Egyptians over their countrymen for certain jobs. The reason according to Abdel-Rahman Al-Benaqji, owner of one of Lebanon's most popular coffee shops chains, is that Egyptians are "hard workers, and usually don't complain about working conditions like Lebanese workers," he said. "After the recent measures, I will seek work permits for some 10 Egyptian workers in my company," he added.
But the rapidly rising cost of living in relation to Lebanon's meagre salaries, the rocketing unemployment rate -- it has scaled to 15 per cent -- and the one million Syrian workers already in the market vying for jobs, the question remains: Is it worth all the suffering?
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