Lebanon Labor Minister sounds the alarm over replacement of Lebanese workers by Syrians

Lebanon Labor Minister Sij’aan Qazzi sounded the alarm on Sunday when he warned that over 10,000 Lebanese workers  were forced out of their jobs and replaced by foreign nationals and mainly Syrians

In an interview with LBCI , Qazzi  blamed companies for the replacement of Lebanese workers.

“There is a huge, frightening case of firing Lebanese workers,” Azzi said.

Jazzi  said  that some companies were deliberately creating unfavorable circumstances for their Lebanese employees in an attempt to force them to quit. Qazzi  warned that his ministry would be referring companies replacing Lebanese workers with foreigners to the judicial authorities.

Qazzi ’s statements came a day after the Labor Ministry issued a statement warning of a crackdown against unlicensed enterprises and cautioning company bosses against replacing Lebanese workers with Syrians.

The statement named multiple unlicensed private sector companies, the majority of which were based in the Bekaa Valley area of Baalbek-Hermel and in Akkar in the north.

The ministry warned that it would work with the Internal Security Forces to find companies that were firing Lebanese employees to hire Syrians. About  1.5 million Syrian refugees have escaped their war-ravaged homes in hopes of a safe-haven in Lebanon. The Syrians  often accept much lower wages than their Lebanese counterparts.