BEIRUT: The sight of a woman and her son sleeping on the sidewalk in Halba Square in northern Lebanon has shocked public opinion as homelessness was not a severe problem before the outbreak of the economic crisis, which has been aggravated by the coronavirus lockdown.
Dr. Mustafa Allouch, a member of the “Future Movement,” told Arab News that “dozens of people in Tripoli knocked on his door every day asking for medicine or milk for their children.”
Tripoli and Akkar include neighborhoods where most families live in extreme need, noting that the World Bank had declared that the poverty rate in Lebanon already exceeded 40 percent of the population due to the depreciation of the Lebanese pound, an increase in unemployment and the paralysis of business activities.
A woman and her son sleeping on the sidewalk in Halba Square. (AN Photo)
The General Confederation of Lebanese Workers (CGTL), the highest representative body for workers in Lebanon, warned that “neither wealth nor banks, movable, or immovable property, would be spared from people’s wrath.”
The rise of the US dollar against the Lebanese pound, doubling in less than three months, caused an increase of 60 to 100 percent in the price of food and consumer items, according to the CGTL.
Purchasing power decreased by 60 percent, while 75 percent of young people were reported unemployed, or receiving half or even a quarter of their salaries because of the general lockdown caused by the pandemic.
Dr. Allouch expected that the number of people in need would increase. “The needy people in Tripoli are both Lebanese and Syrian refugees,” he said. “Their number has already doubled due to the crisis. We know that the state resources now are scarce. Yet help should be dedicated to the needy with disregard to sectarian or political affiliation.”
He said that “had it not been for the general immobilization, thousands of people would have taken to the streets to protest, without any enticement by the political parties or factions.”
Barbers and other shop owners defied the lockdown and held a sit-in in Tripoli, asking the government to allow them to open their shops while adopting precautionary measures.
Protests erupted in Beirut as young people from Tarik Al-Jadida neighborhoods organized a massive motorcycle demonstration, headed to the house of the prime minister and chanting slogans against the increase in prices and the deterioration in living conditions.
Signs of renewed protests were shown as activists, who participated in the Oct. 17 uprising, issued a statement threatening to “protest in front of homes of politicians, bankers and owners of money exchange offices,” and assuring them that “the revolution will show no mercy for the corrupt.”
The CGTL said that it held “the political and financial authorities responsible for the current situation due to bad management, corruption and complicity in everything that led to the crisis.”
It called for the “return of the money of depositors, especially the middle class, retirees and expatriates before it is too late, and on ending monopolies.”
Minister of Health Hamad Hassan declared that he might make a decision to reduce the precautionary measures taken to contain the pandemic starting from May 10.
Hassan said: “May 10 might be the right time to take a decision whether to end or expand the general immobilization, in light of the decrease in daily recorded cases of coronavirus infections in Lebanon.” He said that only four people were recorded to have contracted the virus on Monday, raising the total number of infections to 677.
“May 15 might be the beginning of a gradual return to schools and universities in Lebanon,” he said.
