by arabnews.com -- NAJIA HOUSSARI -- BEIRUT: Foreign workers in Lebanon are seeking repatriation because the country’s dire economic situation has left employers unable to pay them. Many Lebanese people have ditched their foreign domestic help to avoid the cost of repatriating them to their home countries, or returned them to the employment agencies they were recruited from. 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. There are more than 150,000 foreigners working legally in Lebanon, and 80,000 working illegally. “We received videotapes of the detention of some 26 Filipino female workers, including a pregnant woman, in a building adjacent to their country’s embassy in the Hadath area in the southern suburb of Beirut more than 35 days ago,” Bassam Kantar, a member of Lebanon’s National Human Rights Commission, which includes the Committee for the Prevention of Torture (LNHRC-CPT), told Arab News. “They were kept in a room in poor conditions. We visited the embassy and talked to the officials. There are more than 100 other workers inside the consulate awaiting repatriation.”

Kantar said that the LNHRC-CPT had been contacted by other foreigners requesting repatriation, especially those who were working illegally. “The LNHRC-CPT contacted Lebanese General Security and it decided to exempt the employees from paying the residency allowance and fines. But it is unable to return them to their countries because it is the responsibility of their embassies.” He said that there was cooperation between the International Organization for Migration and Lebanese General Security to transfer such workers through planes belonging to airlines of other countries that were carrying workers of other nationalities. Some airlines refused to send empty planes to Lebanon due to huge losses, he said, but explained the biggest problem related to workers from countries with which Lebanon had no diplomatic relations.

by middleeasteye.net -- Sixteen people in Lebanon, mostly Syrians, were arrested for money transfers and "illegal" currency exchange operations, the army said on Saturday, amid a government crackdown on exchange rate manipulation. The army said in a statement that it had arrested 13 Syrians and three Lebanese who were carrying out "money transfers and illegal currency exchange transactions, using licensed companies and offices as a front", AFP reported. The suspects used an "unlicensed online platform belonging to one of the financial companies" to carry out the financial transactions, the statement said. The Lebanese pound has been pegged to the dollar at 1,507 since 1997, but the country's worst economic crisis in decades has seen its value plunge to less than 4,000 on the black market.

The government has sought to stem the fall by launching a nationwide crackdown on money changers it alleges are exchanging the pound for dollars at a rate weaker than the 3,200 per dollar permitted by the central bank. During the arrests, the army seized "significant sums" and also computers and laptops used in the operations, the statement added, specifying that the arrests took place in 12 regions across Lebanon. The network sent dollars with motorists across the border to Syria, specifically to the northwestern province of Idlib, a security official said, referring to a region controlled by rebels. After land borders closed because of the coronavirus pandemic, the network started using an "illegal online platform" controlled by a Lebanese money changer, the official added.

by catholicleader.com.au -- Peter Bugden -- MARONITE Catholics of Brisbane are appealing for prayers for Lebanon, a nation in crisis. “We would like people to join us in prayers. Really, that’s the main thing that we need,” George Tawk, a Lebanese Catholic from the Maronite parish of St Maroun’s, Greenslopes, said. “Just we need them to join us in prayers for the safety of Lebanon, especially because Lebanon has the biggest Catholic community in the Middle East – next to where Jesus was born, next to the Holy Land. “What we really need, we need support through prayers and through emotional and sentimental support.” Mr Tawk, who is in daily contact with family members in Lebanon, keeps track of the nation’s woes as it suffers under a corrupt government and economic crisis. Nationwide protests erupted last October and continued until the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. “People took to the streets from all religions – Christians, Muslims, Jews – everyone just got up and said that we should get rid of all these people, all these corrupt people, and come back with a new generation (of leaders) …,” Mr Tawk said. “There was two million people in the streets protesting against corruption. “And all these protests kept happening till the coronavirus hit.”

The protests stopped as citizens went into isolation. “But people were worried that during all the isolation, the government could be doing something in secret, especially because the value of our Lebanese lira went dramatically down. “And prices of (everything) including food, went up by three or four times. “So people decided, ‘Well, that’s it, even with the coronavirus, we’re going back onto the streets because we can’t support this anymore’. “It looks like the Lebanese people are really determined to go all the way, whatever the cost is”. Mr Tawk said his family indicated protesting was the people’s last resort. “In Lebanon, there is no other choice,” he said. “Going back is not an option because things can’t get any worse.”

by english.aawsat.com -- Lebanon is ready to terminate a 23-year-old dollar peg and float the pound, but only after it secures billions in aid, Finance Minister Ghazi Wazni said Friday. Speaking to AFP after talks started Wednesday with the International Monetary Fund on a plan to rescue Lebanon's crisis hit economy, he also said banking sector restructuring would entail halving the number of lenders. Foreign exchange shortages have in recent months severely strained the official rate of 1,507 to the dollar, with the pound losing well over half its black market value to trade at considerably beyond 4,000 against the greenback. "The IMF always asks for the freeing of the pound's exchange rate," Wazni said. But "we need to change the stabilization policy to one of a flexible exchange rate in a first stage and for the foreseeable future," he said, referring to an initial managed flotation. "When we receive financial support from abroad, we will transition to flotation" dictated by the market, he said. "The Lebanese government has asked for a transitional period to pass through a flexible exchange rate before we reach flotation," he added. Wazni said the first phase would involve a gradual depreciation of the Lebanese pound against the dollar, in coordination with the central bank. He said this was necessary because the government feared a "huge deterioration of the pound exchange rate" otherwise.

Merging banks

 Lebanon, which was hit last autumn by unprecedented protests, asked the IMF for financial assistance on May 1 after laying out a much-awaited financial rescue plan. That plan aims to drum up billions of dollars in aid, reduce the deficit, restructure a colossal debt burden and slim down an oversized banking sector. Wazni said banking sector restructuring would be carried out "step by step", and possibilities included "merging" financial institutions. "Lebanon counts 49 commercial banks and it is normal for that number to decrease to around half of that in the next stage," he said. Wazni said that the IMF had however not set any political conditions for financial assistance. "No political conditions have been set," he said.