From blocked phones to extortionate “fees,” officials keep robbing their own citizens
By: Ali Hussein
Lebanese expats traveling back home to spend precious time with their families should brace themselves for a harsh reality check: corruption by the authorities is alive and well. Despite decades of promises, reforms, and slogans about transparency, Lebanon remains a deeply corrupt country where officials treat citizens and visitors alike as sources of revenue, not as people to serve.
For expats—many of whom left Lebanon in search of dignity and opportunity abroad—returning home often comes with a bitter surprise. Whether it’s dealing with airport officials, public services, or basic utilities, the same old patterns of bribery, inefficiency, and extortion persist. Instead of welcoming their own people, the system continues to drain them with hidden costs, arbitrary rules, and an endless appetite for “fees.”
This latest episode is a reminder: corruption in Lebanon is not an accident, it is the system. Until there is real accountability, real reforms, and a true separation between politics and public service, Lebanese at home and abroad will keep paying the price.
Here is the latest shock: After spending three months in Lebanon and before returning to the United States, we kept receiving messages demanding that we pay Lebanese customs fees for our mobile phones—phones that we had purchased in the U.S. and for which we had already paid U.S. customs duties. Eventually, our phones were blocked from use in Lebanon until we paid an outrageous $150 “customs duty” to Ogero, the government telecom agency.
This is nothing short of blackmail and extortion. Instead of creating policies to attract expats and encourage them to invest and spend more time with their families , the authorities have found yet another way to rob their own citizens. For a country that depends so heavily on remittances, this kind of behavior is self-destructive—and it confirms what many already know: Lebanon’s corruption is systemic, deliberate, and merciless.