Children at increasing risk in crisis-hit Lebanon

BEIRUT -- As Lebanon contends with multiple crises -- an economic meltdown, COVID-19, the aftermath of the 2020 Beirut port explosion and a devastated health system -- the lives of the country's children are at increasing risk.

In reports released this year, UNICEF reveals that families in Lebanon are struggling to cope amid rising poverty and spiraling inflation, made worse by Russia's war on Ukraine, which has sent global prices soaring.

Global fuel price hikes, coupled with Lebanon's inability to import some raw materials, including wheat, have since sent prices soaring even higher.

Amid all this, child labour in Lebanon has grown to scandalous proportions, observers said, to the point that few workplaces -- shops, bakeries, garages and agricultural enterprises -- do not employ a child under the age of 15.

Child labourers who spoke with Al-Mashareq in turn revealed that their families' economic circumstances had forced them to get a job, even at the expense of discontinuing their education.

"The difficult conditions our household is facing forced me to work in a supermarket in Mazraat Yachou," said Shadi Melhem, a young teenager.

Melhem told Al-Mashareq he is paid less than 300,000 LBP (less than $10) per week for his labours -- money he uses "to help my father buy essential food items".

"I was faced with two choices, either leave the house for good to escape the constant tension, or work to help with the expenses and give up this school year," he explained.

Rise in school dropout rate

Children "are among the hardest hit by the economic situation and the repercussions of the port explosion", said Maria Semaan, child protection programme co-ordinator at KAFA (Enough) Violence and Exploitation.

KAFA is a Beirut-based non-governmental organisation that works to eliminate all forms of gender-based violence and exploitation.

"This increases the pressure inside homes and violence against children from the psychological, economic and social pressures experienced by parents," she said.

Meanwhile, she told Al-Mashareq, "the prolonged economic crisis deprives children of many rights and services".

Because of the economic crisis, she added, "the school dropout, child marriage and child labour rates have increased, due to the parents' inability to enrol their children in school".

Faced with financial hardship, Samaan said, some families have pushed their sons to work to help meet household expenses, or have given permission for their underage daughters to marry.

As a result of these actions, children are suffering the repercussions of the various crises Lebanon is facing, she said, especially "in light of the state's chronic failure to protect them" and provide them with the services they need.

In the absence of the state, she added, organisations are taking it upon themselves to help the children.

But they are limited in their ability to do so, she noted, as the fallout from the accumulated crises and from the overall regional situation has a negative impact on the organisations as well as on the children and families.

Lebanese 'held hostage'

The Lebanese people "are being subjected to a systematic process of impoverishment and societal fragmentation", Civic Impact Hub executive director Ziad al-Sayegh told Al-Mashareq.

The issue "goes beyond the socio-economic crisis to changing the identity of Lebanese society", he said, suggesting that the country is "being subjected to organised crime through corruption".

He alluded to the role of Iran's proxies in Lebanon's demise, noting that affiliated militias have "nothing to do with Lebanese national security, Lebanon's supreme interest, or the common values and interests of the Lebanese".

In that sense, al-Sayegh said, "some may read that the Lebanese crisis is linked to the regional crisis" and that the Lebanese people are being held hostage to Iran's expansionist regional agenda.

With 80% of the Lebanese population falling below the poverty line and more than 60% already below it, children are facing serious consequences, the United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur said in a recent report.

Foremost is the lack of food and medicine security, despite the intervention of the UN and local, regional and international civil society organisations, and the support of countries such as the United States.

This is closely followed by the school dropout rate, due to the inability of parents to cover their children's school expenses, and the inability of young Lebanese to pursue a university education, al-Sayegh said.

Social protection strategy

UNICEF is working on a response to the multiple crises the country is facing, said Sarah Hague, director of the Lebanon office of UNICEF's Social Policy Department.

The plan includes "helping the government launch the first National Social Protection Strategy, in partnership with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to provide a comprehensive 'social protection floor'," she told Al-Mashareq.

This will combine "income support for families in extreme poverty with social grants that address the vulnerabilities of children, people with disabilities and the elderly", she explained.

Additionally, she said, "work is under way to reach more than 80,000 vulnerable children to support them with access to learning, protection, water and sanitation services".

Support also is being provided to Lebanon's Ministry of Education "to help children have access to formal education, and to provide learning opportunities for out-of-school children", she added.