Conflict Incident Report

Around 30 contract employees for the National Program for Monitoring Population Mobility in Lebanon staged a protest outside the Ministry of Social Affairs in Beirut's Badaro area, shortly after the minister announced the end of the initiative.

Angry protesters blocked the ministry's entrance preventing people from entering or leaving its premises.

The employees, who haven’t been paid in four months, described the move as a crime against 350 families.

“We are here calling for our rights. Without previous notice, we were fired, even after we hadn’t been paid in a while,” one protester said.

“If they want to stop this program, let them include us in another program,” another protester said.

“We wanted the minister to come down, but he didn’t talk to our face. Instead, he went to his news conference and told us ... to go home,” a protester added.

Social Affairs Minister Pierre Abou Assi told the press that the time had come to end the program, which surveys Syrian families across Lebanon, saying it was an ineffective use of public funds.

“The program is, first, past its time. Second, even if we do extend it, we won’t reach the objectives that we had projected,” Abou Assi told reporters after announcing the program’s termination.

“I want to tell the people that are in this program ‘thank you.’ Just because it’s closing doesn’t mean that you haven’t succeeded. It doesn’t mean the closing was your fault,” he said.

The protesters however blasted the minister for renovating departments inside the ministry while they had not received their salaries.

Other employees said that they had worked overtime and paid for transportation out of their pockets, even though they weren’t receiving their salaries.

"We want the minister," they shouted.

Abou Assi later met with a delegation of 13 employees, which they had initially refused after he ignored them upon his arrival at the ministry.

"The minister insists that the program was useless," an employee who was a part of the delegation said after the meeting.

He called on the government to find a solution for the 350 employees, urging Prime Minister Saad Hariri to include the matter on the agenda for the next Cabinet session.

"They are decisive about laying off the employees ... it's unfortunate that we live in a country like Lebanon," another protester said.

Regarding the four-month delay in salary payments, the protesters said that the minister vowed that the paychecks would be paid in one installment.

"We are not demanding our full-time employment or to be included in the National Social Security Fund ... we want them to extend the program."