It is quite naive to think that a government that neglects its own population so badly would simply take care of foreign residents on its territory, and especially when they are refugees in a precarious situation or completely destitute!
How foolish to imagine for a moment that a State that has failed in almost all of its obligations towards its own citizens, whether in terms of security or basic public services, would suddenly turn its attention to the trials and misfortunes of people who have settled on its territory unwillingly, and who moreover are accused of being at the origin of the catastrophe that has struck Lebanon!
Of course, it is certainly more convenient to disengage oneself by evoking an imaginary “international conspiracy” and to evade responsibility by handing over the entire problem to UN relief agencies and NGOs.
So inevitably, all that the Lebanese population endures in its daily life: shortage of fuel, electricity and water, disappearance of medicines from the shelves of pharmacies, the announced collapse of the health system and hospitals, the increase in the price of bread, the disorganization of food distribution in shops and supermarkets... All this is therefore bound to spread and already affects in even more dramatic conditions the marginalized foreign populations.
Even with regard to the coronavirus pandemic, we had to wait for the last deliveries of the anti-Covid vaccines to think about including refugees and other migrants in the vaccination campaign. And again! It took several months for the term "foreign nationality" to be added to the field designated for it on the online registration platform. Some party leaders had evenurgedtogive“prioritytotheLebanese”,showingaclearignorance,whenweknowthatthevirusdoesnotdifferentiate between nationalities, and that to achieve herd immunity, it is necessary to vaccinate the maximum number of residents in Lebanon.
It is truly amazing to see that in the end fanaticism, sectarianism and xenophobia, added to incompetence and corruption, originate from only one single defect: a shocking lack of civic education within the Lebanese political class.