Lebanon crisis: children as young as five face violence, dog attacks as forced onto streets to work

Toronto, 13 July –  Children as young as five are being forced onto the streets to sell black market petrol and collect scrap metal and plastic, as COVID-19 exacerbates the economic crisis in Lebanon, Save the Children said today. Prices have spiraled and the value of the Lebanese pound has plummeted.

Save the Children’s staff reported a dramatic increase in the number of children working on the street this year, coming across 306 cases of child labour in the first half of this year compared to 346 cases over the whole of 2020.

Children told the organization that they face being beaten and verbal abuse while trying to earn money on the streets for their families.

Hashem*, a Syrian father of two living in a refugee camp in Bekaa Valley, told Save the Children his five-year-old daughter was attacked by a pack of dogs after she started to work on the street as food became unaffordable.

“She goes out to play with her friends and then she is off to pick empty coke cans and scraps on the street. Sometimes we sell a bag of scrap for 10,000 pounds (0.60 USD) and sometimes not even 3,000 pounds (0.20 USD),” said Hashem.

The country’s economic collapse and people’s decreasing purchasing power have pushed more families from all nationalities to send their children into dangerous and exhausting work, Save the Children said, such as selling tissues on motorways, collecting plastic bottles and working long hours on farms and in households

Save the Children and its partners support families like Hashem’s with cash and other services to prevent children from having to work and to ensure children do not drop out of school.

The collapse in currency and economic deterioration has left over one million children, both Lebanese and refugees, in need of humanitarian support and food assistance. In areas like central Beirut, there has been a notable increase in the number of children begging on the street.

Jennifer Moorehead, Save the Children’s Country Director in Lebanon, said:

 “Children are being relied on like adults to help secure a living for their families. They are being exploited by employers who recruit children as they are cheaper – but also more vulnerable. This is a crisis that requires action from government, communities, civil society and NGOs. Children are being left on the street to scavenge, beg and be abused. With the situation in Lebanon getting worse by the day, we can only expect this crisis to deepen, exponentially exposing boys and girls to abuse and violence.” 

Save the Children helps children involved in child labour and their families through integrated case management work which includes the provision of emergency cash assistance, psychosocial and mental health services for children and caregivers, work with employers, and referrals to services such as basic assistance, food parcels, and education.

The organization is calling for urgent action to ensure the most vulnerable families of all nationalities in Lebanon have access to transparently distributed emergency financial support and complementary support to child well-being.

 *Name changed for privacy reasons

ENDS

[1] According to a soon-to-be-published analysis by Save the Children, the income of a Lebanese household is around 640,000 Lebanese pounds.