Immer mehr Menschen fliehen aus dem Libanon

Ein Bericht von Media Line in der Jpost über die verzweifelte Lage im Libanon:

Between 2017 and 2021, approximately 215,653 people left Lebanon, according to the Beirut-based Information International research center. For the United States, that number would be negligible, but for Lebanon’s 5.5 million population, the scale of departure is immense.

The center’s report shows that the number of Lebanese emigrants soared from 17,721 in 2020 to 79,134 in 2021, an increase of 450%. Almost every day, Beirut’s Rafic Hariri International Airport (named for a slain former prime minister) is the setting for heart-breaking farewells as young people and even entire families board planes without a return ticket.

“We didn’t choose to go outside the country, to leave our parents, to bid farewell to Lebanon,” Hammoud tells The Media Line. “We had to leave in order to be able to survive and provide for ourselves a decent living.”(...)

Those who stay endure life in a crumbling state. They are forced to exist in a country without public utilities such as power and water, with a local currency that has lost 95% of its value and one of the highest inflation rates in the world. Three quarters of the population are living under the poverty line, according to the United Nations.

The desire to leave the small Mediterranean country that was once called “the Paris of the Middle East” cuts across generations, faiths, nationalities and professions. All are in agreement; a better life awaits outside Lebanon.

A Gallup poll from December 2021 found that 63% of Lebanese still in the country say they want to leave forever. Some of those who want to leave are unable to do so, because their savings are frozen in the banks. Others have decided to get out no matter what.

Increasing numbers of desperate people have been boarding small boats trying to reach European coasts hundreds of kilometers away, some perishing in the attempt.