Daily Star.com.lb BEIRUT:
Around 10,000 Lebanese nationals have been forced from their jobs over
the past year to be replaced with “foreigners,” Labor Minister Sejaan
Azzi said Saturday, using a euphemism for Syrian refugees. In an
interview with LBCI, Azzi blamed the replacement of Lebanese workers by a
less expensive workforce for the increasing unemployment rates.

“There
is a case of firing and replacing Lebanese workers in the country that
is big and scary. The main reason [for their firing] is not because of
the economic situation, but because the Lebanese employees are being
replaced by foreigners,” Azzi said. He said that some companies were creating “situations” for the employees to force them to resign from their jobs.

He warned that his ministry will be referring companies that are replacing Lebanese workers with foreigners to the judiciary. This
comes one day after the ministry issued a statement warning of a
crackdown against unlicensed companies 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 are firing Lebanese
employees to hire Syrians, who often work for lower salaries.