Dubai Telegraph - From Beirut to Baghdad: Lebanese flee crisis seeking jobs in Iraq

EUR -
AED 3.815793
AFN 76.358734
ALL 99.523854
AMD 411.973954
ANG 1.872666
AOA 947.449075
ARS 1097.446155
AUD 1.653711
AWG 1.869965
AZN 1.764672
BAM 1.958664
BBD 2.097968
BDT 126.244626
BGN 1.954846
BHD 0.391523
BIF 3039.731556
BMD 1.038869
BND 1.406156
BOB 7.179603
BRL 5.987725
BSD 1.03902
BTN 90.239405
BWP 14.382241
BYN 3.400373
BYR 20361.838175
BZD 2.087183
CAD 1.483999
CDF 2981.554782
CHF 0.948981
CLF 0.025894
CLP 993.677075
CNY 7.593147
CNH 7.595843
COP 4330.00722
CRC 525.869057
CUC 1.038869
CUP 27.530036
CVE 110.899449
CZK 25.054449
DJF 184.627565
DKK 7.458998
DOP 64.722143
DZD 140.57042
EGP 52.589852
ERN 15.583039
ETB 131.15764
FJD 2.403737
FKP 0.855599
GBP 0.834861
GEL 2.929556
GGP 0.855599
GHS 16.05055
GIP 0.855599
GMD 74.280784
GNF 8992.45274
GTQ 8.021731
GYD 217.60929
HKD 8.09234
HNL 26.677969
HRK 7.666386
HTG 136.089023
HUF 402.165519
IDR 17016.679047
ILS 3.720352
IMP 0.855599
INR 90.381528
IQD 1360.918776
IRR 43723.411626
ISK 146.604917
JEP 0.855599
JMD 163.60927
JOD 0.737077
JPY 160.414894
KES 134.014368
KGS 90.849132
KHR 4165.865689
KMF 492.995616
KPW 934.982481
KRW 1509.066698
KWD 0.320948
KYD 0.865879
KZT 524.05397
LAK 22569.435631
LBP 93082.688783
LKR 308.711475
LRD 205.124338
LSL 19.250189
LTL 3.067511
LVL 0.628402
LYD 5.100913
MAD 10.370515
MDL 19.570904
MGA 4893.074438
MKD 61.451314
MMK 3374.206945
MNT 3530.077975
MOP 8.33571
MRU 41.720589
MUR 48.616106
MVR 16.000344
MWK 1804.51634
MXN 21.333051
MYR 4.645813
MZN 66.385957
NAD 19.249942
NGN 1564.68277
NIO 38.178607
NOK 11.701424
NPR 144.384239
NZD 1.840384
OMR 0.399983
PAB 1.039035
PEN 3.857838
PGK 4.164836
PHP 60.515698
PKR 289.844407
PLN 4.163948
PYG 8175.95693
QAR 3.782005
RON 4.977738
RSD 117.099265
RUB 97.653405
RWF 1455.455882
SAR 3.896328
SBD 8.775292
SCR 14.928996
SDG 624.360443
SEK 11.301469
SGD 1.405662
SHP 0.855599
SLE 23.687412
SLL 21784.569592
SOS 593.725927
SRD 36.573366
STD 21502.496931
SVC 9.091296
SYP 13507.378554
SZL 19.25005
THB 35.354282
TJS 11.351756
TMT 3.636043
TND 3.309316
TOP 2.433135
TRY 37.504638
TTD 7.049411
TWD 34.112292
TZS 2690.671414
UAH 43.466968
UGX 3822.590348
USD 1.038869
UYU 45.025848
UZS 13505.300538
VES 63.650812
VND 26558.693518
VUV 123.336649
WST 2.909693
XAF 656.917709
XAG 0.032253
XAU 0.000358
XCD 2.807596
XDR 0.795563
XOF 660.203985
XPF 119.331742
YER 257.639653
ZAR 19.246763
ZMK 9351.063501
ZMW 29.06793
ZWL 334.515489
  • RBGPF

    1.8700

    66.72

    +2.8%

  • RYCEF

    0.0600

    7.67

    +0.78%

  • SCS

    -0.0500

    11.93

    -0.42%

  • NGG

    -0.9000

    60.58

    -1.49%

  • GSK

    0.0600

    36.13

    +0.17%

  • BP

    0.1300

    34.68

    +0.37%

  • BTI

    0.2200

    42.74

    +0.51%

  • RIO

    0.3900

    62.04

    +0.63%

  • RELX

    0.1100

    51.44

    +0.21%

  • CMSC

    -0.1800

    23.28

    -0.77%

  • AZN

    1.7000

    74.43

    +2.28%

  • VOD

    0.0900

    8.59

    +1.05%

  • CMSD

    -0.1800

    23.71

    -0.76%

  • BCE

    0.3800

    23.26

    +1.63%

  • JRI

    -0.0200

    12.85

    -0.16%

  • BCC

    -4.6000

    118.72

    -3.87%

From Beirut to Baghdad: Lebanese flee crisis seeking jobs in Iraq
From Beirut to Baghdad: Lebanese flee crisis seeking jobs in Iraq

From Beirut to Baghdad: Lebanese flee crisis seeking jobs in Iraq

Iraq, once synonymous with conflict and chaos, is becoming a land of opportunity for Lebanese job-seekers fleeing a deep economic crisis back home.

Text size:

Akram Johari is one of thousands who fled Lebanon's tumbling currency and skyrocketing poverty rates.

Last year, he packed his bags and boarded a plane from Beirut to Baghdad, using social media to search for opportunities.

"I didn't have enough time to look for a job in the Gulf," the 42-year-old said, explaining why he eschewed the more traditional path for those seeking economic opportunities in the region.

With its relative proximity and visas on arrival for Lebanese, the Iraqi capital seemed a good option.

"I had to take quick action, and so I came to Baghdad and began searching for work on Instagram," Johari said, speaking in a restaurant he has run for about a month.

Lebanon is grappling with an unprecedented financial crisis that the World Bank says is of a scale usually associated with war.

Beirut's crisis, driven by years of endemic corruption, has seen Lebanon's currency lose more than 90 percent of its value against the dollar.

Lebanon's 675,000-pound monthly minimum wage now fetches around $30 on the black market, and about 80 percent of the population now lives in poverty, according to the UN.

When he left Beirut, Johari was earning the equivalent of about $100 per month. In Iraq, he earns enough to support his family back home, he said.

- Thousands flock to Iraq -

More than 20,000 Lebanese citizens arrived in Iraq between June 2021 and February 2022, excluding pilgrims visiting the Shiite holy cities of Najaf and Karbala, according to the Iraqi authorities.

Lebanon's ambassador in Baghdad, Ali Habhab, said that movement from Lebanon to Iraq "has recently multiplied".

There are more than 900 Lebanese businesses now operating in Iraq, the majority of them in the restaurant trade, tourism and health, Habhab said.

In particular, there have been "dozens of Lebanese doctors who offer their services" in Iraqi hospitals, he said.

Iraq's decades of conflict -- from the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, to the US-led invasion of 2003 and subsequent sectarian conflict, and on to the rise of the Islamic State group in 2014 -- means that Baghdad might appear to be an unlikely magnet for those seeking to build a new life.

But since the country declared victory over IS in 2017, Iraq has slowly begun to recover its stability.

Today, streets in Baghdad that once witnessed atrocities are buzzing with shops lining main thoroughfares and cafes open late into the night.

According to Iraqi economic expert Ali al-Rawi, many Lebanese companies came to Iraq because they "know the investment environment well", while many foreign companies from other countries "fear investing" because of its violent past.

"There is a lot of space for Lebanese enterprises in the Iraqi economy," he said.

But Iraqis themselves have seen their fair share of economic hardship.

In a country where 90 percent of revenues come from oil sales, roughly a third of the population lives in poverty, according to the World Bank.

In 2019, nationwide protests erupted across Iraq, driven by anger over rampant corruption, the absence of basic services and unemployment -- similar factors behind protests in Lebanon that erupted around the same time.

- Lebanese firms flourish -

Lebanon was once a prime destination for medical tourism, as Iraqis flocked to better equipped medical centres in Beirut and other cities.

But, as with other sectors, Lebanon's economic crisis has hit healthcare.

The Beirut Eye & ENT Specialist Hospital was once popular with Iraqi patients, but an official at the hospital, Michael Cherfan, said that "many doctors had left Lebanon".

The hospital responded to the crisis in the way many Lebanese have -- by opening a branch in Baghdad, sparing Iraqis the trip to Beirut.

"Our doctors come on a rotating basis," Cherfan said. "Every week, one or two doctors come and do consultations and surgeries, earn some money and then return to Lebanon, which helps offset some of their losses."

For Johari, while the money he earns in Iraq supports his family, it comes with a bitter taste. He flies home once a month, but he misses his family.

"It saddens me a lot that I can't watch my two-month-old daughter grow up", he said.

C.Akbar--DT