ReportThe economic crisis that is raging in the country of the Cedars makes the rent of the land too expensive.
Of the nine years that Madiane Al-Ahmad and her extended family spent in an informal camp in Bar Elias, in Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley, only a few stones remain on the ground. These Syrian refugees were expelled in the fall of 2021, after a dispute between the owners of the land. The displaced people – thirty-five people – found shelter in an empty warehouse, close to the old camp. But this arrangement is threatened: they must renew these days the rent, 1,200 dollars (1,085 euros) for six months. “I don’t know how to find this sum. With the crisis in Lebanon, there is no more work”sighs Madiane, 47, unemployed after working with associations helping Syrians.
Faced with the risk of another deportation, this man from the Qussair region, on the border with Lebanon, has few options except to try to reduce the number of monthly payments to be paid in advance. The family had been forced to sleep outside, without a roof, before staying in the shed. “We want to live again in a camp, as before: in exchange for the land, we work in agriculture. Everything was organized there. We have found a place, but we do not get permission from the authorities to settle there”regrets Midiane.
“Housing has become a challenge”
In the warehouse, he lives in one room with his wife and their six children. They fixed plastic sheeting to hide the opening left by the iron curtain raised outside, so that the light could pass. The oil stove works at a minimum, for lack of money. However, the ending winter was harsh. “This place is not made to live in”, summarizes Madiane, near the whiteboard on which he gives lessons to his children, who do not attend school. Their relatives have also set up basic spaces in the building.
In a country in full collapse, where prices are soaring, “housing has become a challenge”, confirms Mahassine, originally from the suburbs of Damascus, in his small living room in Al-Marj, another town in the Bekaa. Syrian refugees number nearly 1.5 million in Lebanon, according to the authorities. “The rent is going up. In six years, I have never been able to obtain a rental agreement”describes this widow, an educator for young Syrians, who fled her country with her children after being imprisoned for several months by the regime.
Refugees often seek out this activist: like Oum Alaa, 50 years old. This separated woman breaks down in tears as she talks about the hardships she endures: a disabled teenage son who was injured as a child by a shell in Eastern Ghouta, near Damascus; vertiginous debts to keep up with galloping inflation; and the rent “which has tripled in a few months, reaching 1,200,000 Lebanese pounds [environ 53 euros, plus de deux fois le salaire minimum]. My sons do odd jobs, but that’s not enough. » From now on, the owner wants to recover the building. “He gave me a reprieve because I had an operation. We will go to a camp, Oum Alaa resigns herself. The rent will be cheaper. »
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