Coordination between Labor and Public Security Ministries to Regulate Expatriate Workers’ Status; “Haider” Sets Deadline for Regularization.

Lebanon Today

The Minister of Labor, Muhammad Haidar, held a meeting this morning with the Director-General of General Security, Major General Hassan Shqeir, in the presence of working teams from both the ministry and the directorate.

The aim of the meeting was to coordinate on work permits and residencies granted to foreign workers, in addition to discussing all related topics.

At the conclusion of the meeting, Minister Haidar made a statement to reporters, in which he said: “We held a fruitful meeting with the Director-General of General Security, Major General Hassan Shqeir, where the meeting was devoted to joint coordination between the Ministry of Labor and General Security regarding the file of foreign workers, and setting mechanisms to regulate them in Lebanon. As is well known, we have large numbers of foreign workers in Lebanon, especially with regard to illegal labor. During the meeting, we agreed to launch an initiative to regularize the status of Arab and foreign workers who violate residency and work permit laws in Lebanon. Anyone who has an expired residency or work permit, does not have a sponsor, and entered Lebanese territory legally, a circular will be issued very soon from General Security, in coordination with the Ministry of Labor, to regularize their status. This will be done by obtaining a work permit first, and then regularizing the residency status later.”

The Minister added: “The other point I would like to emphasize is that any Lebanese citizen, resident, company, or institution that has an illegal foreign worker will expose themselves to legal, judicial, and administrative accountability before General Security, meaning that all their transactions at General Security will be suspended. Therefore, we will initially grant a grace period until the end of this year to regularize the status of all workers who are working illegally in various sectors. I hope everyone will abide by this after this decision is issued in the next few days by the General Directorate of General Security.”

Minister Haidar continued: “I address homeowners who have foreign workers or maids working by the hour or for a day or two, to ensure that these workers have a legal work permit or residency, because we will conduct a parallel inspection campaign. Therefore, every Lebanese citizen who has workers or maids illegally will be responsible for them, regardless of the company or office that brought them in.”

Haidar confirmed that “Offices do not have the right to send domestic workers or workers to work by the hour, as this is not permitted in the licenses granted to offices. Any office that violates this will bear all administrative and legal procedures. We, as the Ministry of Labor, will immediately revoke the license of any office that sends workers or maids to work by the hour or on a daily basis. The license will not be suspended or any other action taken, but it will be revoked directly. I hope that office owners take this matter seriously, because I will not back down from this decision, and this matter must take its legal course, and everyone must abide by it.”

Minister Haidar concluded his statement by saying: “The conclusion of the meeting was to reach full cooperation between the Ministry and General Security to regulate illegal foreign labor, and I hope everyone will rush to regularize their status as soon as possible after the issuance of the circular.”

In a separate context, Minister Haidar received former Minister Ziad Makary, and also met with the Regional Director of the International Labor Organization for Arab States, Dr. Ruba Jaradat, and Jumana Karameh, where they discussed projects of common interest between the Ministry and the organization. Jaradat briefed the Minister on the organization’s work program regarding a number of projects planned to be presented to Lebanon in various fields.