Many people are currently suffering from a shortage of food, medicine, water and fuel
Lebanese trying to flee their country amid heartbreaking tragedies
The unemployed youth are destitute and seek to emigrate at any cost.
The New York Times
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Lebanese Nazir Mohammed's attempt to escape hunger and despair in his stricken country turned into a horrific and heart-breaking journey.
Nazir and his wife, Zeinab, sold everything they owned, even the last piece of furniture, to pay $2,500 to smugglers who promised to take the family to Cyprus, a member of the European Union, just 170 kilometers from the northern coast of Lebanon.
However, the couple's attempt to find a better future for their four children turned into a nightmare, which ended in forcing them to return to Lebanon, after they lost their infant son, who died in their arms after he became dehydrated on the boat they boarded in September last year.
Nazir told the German News Agency (dpa), the tragedy: “The boat moved from here in Tripoli, and we were only allowed to carry one backpack.
The boat was small, and there were 49 of us, including Syrians and people of other nationalities, and in the middle of the way the boat ran out of fuel and we were stranded without water or food.”
As for Zainab, she remembers, sadly, how she used to fill the diapers of her baby Muhammad with sea water and try to filter the water and rid it of salt, so that she could keep the infant's mouth moist.
She continues, with tears on her face: "I was unable to do anything, my child died."
She adds that when the child's body began to swell, she and her husband had to make the decision to throw him into the sea.
“We were stranded from the 7th to the 14th of September, when a Turkish UN ship came and rescued us,” she says.
I didn't want to disembark from her when they brought us back to the port of Beirut,” she said, adding that she begged them to take her and the rest of her family to another country.
Despite the tragedies, Zainab and Nazir do not believe that the smugglers are responsible for what happened to them.
They are angry with the ruling elite, and blame it for the deterioration of the situation in such a way that they are no longer able to feed their children, and therefore risked this way in order to leave the country.
"I will try again," says Nazir.
I want to leave with my family to a country that respects its people.”
The worst crisis
Lebanon is suffering from the worst financial crisis in decades.
The World Bank described the crisis as among the most severe in the world since the mid-nineteenth century.
Many people are currently suffering from a shortage of food, medicine, water and fuel, and the country is witnessing widespread power outages.
According to a report by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), poverty rates in Lebanon rose dramatically during the past year, and now include about 74% of the population.
The Lebanese pound also lost 95% of its value, and the inflation rate in food prices is around 400%.
Before the crisis, the minimum wage was $450 a month, but now it is only $34.
According to data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 1,570 people have attempted to cross the Mediterranean this year, most of them to Cyprus, double the number recorded last year.
UNHCR spokeswoman in Beirut, Lisa Abu Khaled, said that the commission "has detected an increase in the number of boats departing from Lebanon starting in 2020 compared to previous years."
She added: "Based on the information available to the Commission so far, more than 1,570 people began or attempted to leave in this way between January 2021 and November 2021, and 1,241 of them aimed to reach Cyprus."
Reasons for leaving
Abu Khaled explained that the passengers were 1,138 Syrians and 186 Lebanese, in addition to people of other nationalities.
She pointed out that one of the main reasons for leaving is the inability to afford to stay in Lebanon, due to the deteriorating economic situation, inability to access basic services, and limited job opportunities.
Dr. Rami Feng, 56, a doctor who works with many humanitarian organizations to help the residents of Tripoli, Lebanon's second largest city, confirms that "citizens are struggling to provide the minimum basic needs."
Fang, who helped provide a new home and some furniture for Nazeer and his family, said many Lebanese families were willing to risk their lives to leave the country.
He added: «The problem is that when the civil war ended in 1990, warlords took over the rule of the country, and herein lies the problem.
The country is basically ruled by militias that have no vision, and rely only on corruption.”
In the al-Mankoubin neighborhood, which is the poor neighborhood, in Tripoli, Ali Tabikh (52 years old), who is unemployed and needs dialysis, had one of his legs amputated due to gangrene, and he depends on his wife who seeks food from some social institutions in the city , to provide food for her husband and their four children.
"The six of us live, as you can see, in this one room," said Ali, sitting on the only bed in the room.
Like many Lebanese, Ali hopes for a chance to leave his country, to secure an education and a better life for his children.
great seriousness and effort
According to the Public Relations Division of the Internal Security Forces, great seriousness and effort are being exerted in terms of combating human trafficking, whether in terms of training or prosecution and arrests, but the problem today is that the spread of these crimes comes at a time when the security forces are under great pressure, given the country's conditions, as The crises and their effects on the security services create difficulties, “but this does not deter us from fighting human trafficking, just as we are fighting any other crime at the level of Lebanon, and we will continue our role in this regard.”
The Division emphasizes that combating human trafficking is given a special priority, as it affects the most vulnerable groups in society and targets them in the first place, and in the second degree, because human trafficking is usually an entry point into criminal acts of various types such as drugs and violence.
However, the security forces do not have clear numbers, especially of human trafficking cases in Lebanon, and there are no statistics that can be analyzed to show the extent and development of these criminal acts during the past years, despite the importance of these numbers and results in the context of any plan to combat human trafficking.
According to previous statistics of the Internal Security Forces, the number of victims of human trafficking in 2015 reached 19 people, rising to 87 in 2016 and then dropping to 54 in 2017.
Today, the security forces have only the numbers of arrests registered with them, which can be built upon to compare the size of arrests over the past years and to show the extent of their increase.
According to the figures, which the security forces provided to Al-Hurra website, in 2020 it recorded the arrest of 92 people on charges of practicing prostitution, and 38 on charges of facilitating it (operators), while the arrest of seven people on charges of human trafficking, and one case of human smuggling.
On the other hand, the year 2021, until the end of August, recorded 11 arrests on charges of trafficking in persons, 55 on charges of practicing prostitution, and 46 arrests on charges of facilitating prostitution, in addition to one arrest case related to people smuggling.
• About "Al Hurra" channel
An environment for crime to grow
The prevailing reality in Lebanon, with an economic collapse and a financial crisis ravaging the population, amid a large spread of unemployment, and a general closure of businesses and investments in various sectors, constitutes the most fertile environment for the growth of human trafficking crimes and the spread of its gangs.
Exploiting a multi-faceted poverty that affects more than 75% of society, according to United Nations estimates, these gangs are expanding their activities in Lebanon today, amid warnings that Lebanon will turn into a headquarters and crossing point for one of the worst types of human crimes, representing the third largest criminal trade in the world. After drugs and illegal weapons, he called it "modern slavery".
On the ninth of last September, the media was abuzz with news that the Lebanese security had thwarted the sale of a Syrian child, and the arrest of gang members responsible for the operation in the city of Jounieh, north of the capital Beirut, after which six people were arrested.
A crime that reminded Lebanon of similar incidents during the civil war era, which destroyed Lebanese society and dispersed its children, in circumstances similar to what the country is witnessing today.
This was not the first incident of its kind that Lebanon witnessed during its crisis. In 2019, the Office for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings had previously halted the sale of a Syrian child, aged about three, for $8000.
During the month of September of the same year, the country was also abuzz with the scandal of selling children carried out by one of the religious associations entrusted with their protection.
And between the two incidents, media reports have monitored several cases in which parents offer their children for sale, for financial reasons, after their inability to secure their living and expenses amid the exorbitant high prices in the country.
The phenomenon of parents abandoning their children, throwing them in the streets, garbage containers, mosques and in front of charities, is widespread. It reached its climax during the past months, especially in early September 2021, when three cases were recorded in one week in different Lebanese regions.
From child trafficking to implicating minors, and from luring girls, to exploiting and employing family members, to “delivery” and “online prostitution” services through applications, and not ending at public auctions on virginity, and securing requests for “group sex.”
All of them are details from the confessions made by dozens of detainees to the Office for Combating Human Trafficking and Protection of Morals during the past two months, after a significant increase in the number of arrests recently.
• About "Al Hurra" channel
• The main reasons for leaving are the inability to afford to stay in Lebanon, due to the deteriorating economic situation, inability to access basic services, as well as limited job opportunities.
• The Lebanese pound has lost 95% of its value, and the inflation rate in food prices has reached about 400%.
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