Palestinian workers not target of new measures: Lebanon

By Wassim Saif al-Din

BEIRUT (AA) - Recent measures on Lebanese-based foreign laborers are not aimed at Palestinian workers, but are part of a plan “to enforce the law,” said Lebanon's labor minister on Thursday.

"All we’ve been doing at the Labor Ministry is to enforce the law, and we want to treat Palestinian workers according to the law, just the way we treat Lebanese workers,” state-run news agency NNA quoted Camille Abousleiman as telling reporters in the capital Beirut.

"We continue to implement the law, and there are no decisions against Palestinian nationals. We are implementing laws that facilitate their work conditions; I fail to understand what’s the point behind the ongoing protests!” he added, according to NNA.

He went on to say that the government will make things easier for Palestinian labors, including exemption from fees and allowances for vacations.

The Lebanese government recently started a plan targeting labor market irregularities. But foreign laborers -- particularly Palestinian and Syrian workers -- say the plan is meant to exclude them from the labor market.

Abousleiman criticized the Palestinian reaction to the plan as “not understandable.”

According to 2017 statistics, some 174,500 Palestinian refugees are living in 12 refugee camps in Lebanon.