The impact of coronavirus has compounded the misery being suffered by many foreign workers in Lebanon, who have found themselves caught up in a dire economic and financial crisis since last October.

Their salaries were already decimated after the Lebanese pound exchange rate deteriorated while banks resorted to placing restrictions on financial transfers abroad.

Now, the coronavirus pandemic has only increased the misery of foreign workers, many of whom find themselves on the streets without a job or salary after being fired by employers who were no longer able to pay foreign workers' salaries in US dollars.

Domestic workers have also run away after employers stopped paying their salaries, seeking refuge in the embassies of their home countries in their bid to be evacuated. But because the airport and borders are closed, they can't leave the country.

The coronavirus pandemic has also hampered government efforts to repatriate workers via their embassies, and even those flights require payment in dollars.

The Beirut port explosion on August 4 made matters worse and tens of thousands have been forced to sleep in the open, without shelter, food or drink.

Price of imported goods rising rapidly

According to official statistics, some 250,000 foreign domestic workers are employed in Lebanon, mostly women, who come from African and Asian countries. They are employed in private households, to clean buildings, to collect garbage or as kitchen helpers in restaurants.

Most of them are recruited through labour agencies and promised they will be paid in US dollars so they can send remittances to their families at home.

The artificial peg of the Lebanese pound to the US dollar allowed even middle-class Lebanese with relatively low salaries to afford live-in and domestic help.

But now, the Lebanese pound has lost 80 percent of its value against the US dollar, sending the price of imported goods up rapidly. It also means that employers now have to pay four times the amount in Lebanese pounds to get the US dollars they need to pay foreign staff so many employers have fired their domestic workers without warning.

Mahmoud, from Syria, survived the explosion in Beirut port with minor injuries but lost his apartment in Karantina, a poor suburb of Beirut severely affected by the explosion.

He lost his job as a plumber and now has no income at all. “We used to live in peace in Lebanon, we escaped from the war in Syria, and came to Lebanon where I found shelter and work. But the situation was worsened considerably since the end of 2019 with multiple crises. Now I’m without a job, I can’t return to Syria, I can’t go anywhere,” Mahmoud told Arabian Business.

In Karantina, one of the worst affected neighbourhoods, the majority of the community are extremely poor Lebanese, refugees and migrant workers who already struggled to make ends meet before the blast.

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) issued a report on the needs of foreign national households in Beirut, and noted that their needs were markedly different from those of Lebanese households.

The difference is particularly pronounced in foreign-origin households prioritising cash and food as their top needs, indicating an acute need for essential items. By comparison, the top need of Lebanese households was for shelter repairs.

Of the assessed foreign national households, 45 percent didn’t receive any assistance.

Increased competition

Jalal, from Egypt, who is sharing his basement apartment with a friend in Karantina district, said: "I’ve lost my job at a petrol station and we’re trapped here. The economic crisis has increased competition in the labour market.

The petrol station, where I worked for years, wanted to replace me with Lebanese workers. It’s more lucrative for them, I earned $300 a month, and now they can’t pay me that salary in US dollars. I am looking for a way to get back to Egypt. The situation in Lebanon is getting worse.”

Houda, a hotel waitress from Morocco, told Arabian Business: “We live in this brotherly country in good conditions, we can save money and help our families in Morocco. Lebanon now suffers from difficult circumstances, and we can’t afford to live here anymore.”

Marjani, a housemaid from Ethiopia, added: “My employer in Rabia, North Metn, stopped paying my salary ($150) and refused to give me tickets to return home. He said he doesn’t have the money. I told him I need only to buy a return ticket to my country.”

In recent months, dozens of Ethiopian women have gathered outside the country's consulate in Beirut. Some have been abandoned by their employers, without pay.

“The Lebanese authorities must protect migrant domestic workers trapped in the country after being sacked due to the intensifying economic crisis,” Amnesty International said in a recent report after the port explosion.